Digital Commons Network^™

An Interactive Assessment Of Democracy: Economic And Cultural Determinants Of Democratic Development, Won Ha Reyes Gonzalez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

As democracy has become a popular form of governance, questions as to how to best develop democracies have been raised. Theories based on economic and cultural development have separately provided the academic community with interesting findings. However, theories based on economic determinants and cultural determinants give results that do not answer the question of how to develop democracies in a thoroughly satisfying manner, when approaching the question separately. This thesis tests the two methods separately and then integrates the two methods using interaction terms. By doing this we can see if economic development leads to democratic development, if cultural development …

I Am Smart, Therefore I Can: Examining The Relationship Between Iq And Self-Efficacy Across Cultures, Diomaris E. Jurecska, Chloe E. Lee-Zorn, Kelly B.T. Chang, Elizabeth Sequeira

Faculty Publications - Psychology Department

The purpose of this article is to examine the relationship between intelligence (IQ) and self-efficacy in children and adolescents living in the United States and Nicaragua. The sample consisted of 90 (46 male, 44 female) students (mean age = 11.57 years, SD = 3.0 years) referred by school administrators and faculty. United States (US) participants (n = 27) resided in rural counties in the Northwest. The other group consisted of 63 students from Central America. A comparison between groups revealed that in the US, sample higher grades and IQ scores are typically associated with higher levels of self-efficacy. However in …

Fan Commitment And Its Transformation Into Communitas Through The Process Of Proxemic Exchange, Arthur Alexander Aguirre

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Live performances are comprised of various elements that scholars have utilized to understand the artist-fan relationship as well as the relationship among the fans themselves. In this study, I look at fandom in independent, or “indie” music and utilize my findings to creation a foundation for the understanding of fan commitment. I then argue that when a fan of a particular artist attends a live performance by that artist, they inherently engage in a proxemic exchange with the artist as well as the fans around them. This proxemic exchange is driven by fan commitment and facilitates the creation of communitas …

Ballistic Projectile Metallurgical Issues And Fundamentals: Aerosol Production In Rod Penetration Erosion And Erosion Phenomena Associated With Railgun Development, Brenda Ivette Machado

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The issue is derived from ballistic erosion as it relates to nanoparticle production and respiration of these particles as a health concern ballistic erosion and ballistic erosion as it relates to railgun performance. A common thread between these two issues is dynamic recrystallization (DRX). DRX has been demonstrated to be the dominant mechanism for solid-state flow associated with ballistic projectile/target penetration and interaction, friction-stir welding phenomena, and other high-strain rate deformation phenomena.

Aerosol particulates collected on filters from ballistic penetration and erosion events for W-Ni-Co and W-Ni-Fe kinetic energy rod projectiles penetrating steel target plates were observed to be highly …

Judicial Backlash Or Just Backlash? Evidence From A National Experiment, Donald Braman, David Fontana

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

The question about whether there is a distinctive public reaction when the Supreme Court decides constitutional issues — the question of judicial backlash — permeates our discussions of constitutional law, yet we have little to no empirical research about how people think about this issue. To answer this question, we conducted an experiment before the midterm congressional elections in the fall of 2010. We hypothesized that people respond to an institution based on whether the institution is seen as supporting or threatening their cultural worldview. Half of study subjects were assigned to a condition in which a constitutional right to …

Combating Discrimination Against The Roma In Europe: Why Current Strategies Aren’T Working And What Can Be Done, Erica Rosenfield

Human Rights & Human Welfare

In the summer of 2010, the forced expulsion of many Roma from Western to Eastern Europe captured headlines and world attention, yet this practice simply represented the latest manifestation of anti-Roma sentiment in Europe. Indeed, the Roma—numbering over ten million across Europe, making them the continent’s largest minority—face discrimination in housing, education, healthcare, employment, and law enforcement; widespread prejudice against this group shows no evidence of receding. There is, however, certainly no shortage of national and supranational policies aiming to promote inclusion and equality for the Roma.

Sex Trafficking Or Sex Work: Conceptions Of Trafficking Among Anti-Trafficking Organizations In Nepal, Miranda E. Worthen

Faculty Publications

Trafficking for sexual purposes is widely recognized as a violation of human rights. Trafficking of women and girls within Nepal and from Nepal to India’s red light districts is thought to be extremely common. There is sharp debate within the anti-trafficking community, both within Nepal and globally, about why trafficking occurs and how to prevent it. I argue that this disagreement is rooted in two distinct underlying frameworks employed by anti-trafficking advocates to understand trafficking, which I identify as the “Prostitution Framework” and the “Labour Exploitation Framework”. This article introduces these frameworks and investigates where the anti-trafficking community in Nepal …

Cobalt Biogeochemistry In The Atlantic Ocean Using Flow Injection-Chemiluminescence, Rachel Shelley

Other Faculty of Science and Engineering Theses

As ~ 50% of global photosynthesis occurs in marine environments, the factors regulating this process e.g. trace metal availability, have an impact on the global carbon cycle. The key cyanobacteria genera Prochlorococcus and Synechococcus have an absolute requirement for Co. Dissolved cobalt (dCo) concentrations in the open ocean are extremely low (5–120 pM). A sensitive flow injection technique using chemiluminescence detection (FI-CL) was developed (detection limit 4.5 pM dCo, RSD ≤ 4%). Seawater samples must be UV-irradiated prior to analysis, in order to liberate organically-bound Co. A field study in the Sargasso Sea, demonstrated that aerosol Co was significantly more …

Sustainable Heritage Management Practices At Visited Heritage Sites In Devon And Cornwall, Susan Elizabeth Joan Darlow

Other Faculty of Science and Engineering Theses

Sustainability is one of the key challenges facing society in the twenty-first century. The adoption of sustainable practices in the heritage sector resonates with its long-established objectives to conserve and enhance the historic environment, although its implementation can also present significant dilemmas for the commodification, integrity, authenticity, accessibility and viability of these resources, particularly where sites are tourist attractions. The aim of this thesis was to investigate progress in the adoption of sustainable practices in heritage properties and sites in Devon and Cornwall. The findings were based on the compilation of an inventory of selected heritage resources; an extensive questionnaire …

Ludics For A Ludic Society. The Art And Politics Of Play, Margarete Jahrmann

Other Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Business Theses

This dissertation provides an analysis of, and critical commentary on, the practice of playfulness as persistent phenomenon in the arts, technology and theory. Its aim is to introduce political reflections on agency through the study of playful technological artefacts, which were largely ignored in the recent discussions on game and play. Following the critical analysis of historic discourses and actual studies of play under differing auspices, and in order to understand play as inherently political agency, this thesis’ research question addresses the immersive effects of playful agency in symbolic exchange systems and in the material consciousness of the player. This …

Representing ‘The Real’: Realism And Visual Culture In Tourism, Leisure And Ethnography, Ian Gilhespy, Dave Harris

Journal of Tourism Consumption and Practice

The collection and use of visual evidence is widespread in a wide range of academic and professional activities. The paper explores the similarities and differences of a range of related phenomena: realism, documentary and authenticity. The status of the ‘realism effect’ is evaluated in a range of leisure activities with an emphasis on tourism and the significance of realist texts in popular culture in narrative and nonnarrative forms. The creative treatment of the representation of reality in the documentary tradition is highlighted. The paper emphasises the pleasures to be gained from ‘experiencing the real’ using semiotics and film theory, in …

Principals Attitudes Toward Inclusion In Dubai Public Schools: Where Do They Stand?, Fouzia Usman

Master's Theses

Inclusion in the UAE has been a concern for many over the years and lately, has gained the attention at national level. Through this study, the researcher confines the research within Dubai only and looks forward to the responses and expects that the results will be used as a guideline to enhance special education services in a fast developing city such as Dubai.

This study discusses the purpose of the study, available literature and research conducted on the topic, sample population, instrumentation, and procedure and data analysis techniques to carry out the research. Based on that, primary research questions are …

Indigenous Intercultural Universities In Latin America: Interpreting Interculturalism In Mexico And Bolivia, Luciano Pedota

Master's Theses

The newly created Indigenous Intercultural Universities in Latin America challenge the conventional conception of universities and their "universal" quality. Such universities seek to decolonize knowledge by generating knowledge that is relevant to the communities in which they are located. These intentions, however, do not necessarily exclude the knowledge and research methods imparted by long-established Western universities. Instead, they have been conceived as Intercultural institutions designed to train indigenous community leaders capable of hybridizing or carrying out a "dialogue of knowledges"(Mato, 2007) and research methods of what are ultimately two different, and often times, opposing and contentious paradigms, one stemming from …

Being In The Know: Punk, Confrontation, And The Process Of Validating Truth Claims, Christopher Richard Penna

Master's Theses

Since the birth of punk, it has been a harbinger of trends within both youth culture and what cultural theorist Theodor Adorno calls the "culture industry" (Adorno & Horkheimer, 1947; Adorno, 1971). However, punk has never been fully embraced by the culture industry, largely, by design. Punk arose as a response, borne out of the frustration of a stagnant world that values profit over people (Sabin, 1999, p. 3). Present within opposition is confrontation--which is the very nature of punk. This thesis seeks to exemplify how punk uses confrontation as the instrument through which punk comes to know truths. The …

Tailoring Mentoring For New Mathematics And Science Teachers: An Exploratory Study, Christine Ormond

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This paper explores some aspects of effective professional mentoring practice for early career mathematics and science teachers, and discusses the Early Support Program (ESP), a research project conducted in 2009 and 2010 at a large Australian metropolitan university. It is argued that better outcomes may result from a more strategic “tailoring” of mentoring “type” for different aspects of new teacher induction, especially as school-based mentors often have insufficient time or training to support them. The ESP has been trialling its more “distanced” mentoring model, tracking the issues that a group of new teachers chose to discuss with their mentors, and …

(Im)Possibilities Of Theatre And Transgression: The Critical Impact Of Transgressive Theatrical Practices, Christopher J. Krejci

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

While performance practitioners often rely on socially, aesthetically, and politically transgressive practices to critically impact the socio-political climate outside the theater walls, transgression is fraught with contradiction. Historically, acts of transgression have led to both the expansion and suppression of democratic rights. (Im)possibilites of Theatre and Transgression employs a critical lens that takes into account the historical and ideological specificities of individual productions in Austin, TX and Baton Rouge, LA to argue that transgressive theatrical practices both counter and reproduce normalizing discourses and discourses of domination in local and regional culture. This study focuses on the types of aesthetically, socially, …

Eight Is Not Enough: A Historical, Cultural, And Philosophical Analysis Of The Flash Mob, Rebecca Walker

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In 2003, writer and cultural critic Bill Wasik stunned the world with his newest experiment, the MOB Project, which flooded the streets of New York City with strange performances quickly labeled “flash mobs” by participants and local media. With the goal of understanding the communicative purpose and function of these new performance events, this project analyzes the flash mob through the lenses of performance studies, rhetorical studies, cultural studies, and continental philosophy. Drawing from genealogical research, rhetorical analyses, and critical philosophy, I argue the flash mob is a new form of performance serving as a locus of community, creativity, and …

Birth Matters: Discourses Of Childbirth In Contemporary American Culture, Jennifer Ellis West

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In this project, I use a rhetorical-cultural approach to examine the multiple and often-contradictory messages circulating in contemporary American culture about the event of childbirth. Though many feminist scholars have shown how professional obstetrics’ view of physiological birth shapes medical practice and women’s experiences in hospitals, few have asked what the American public is learning about birth outside of the hospital, or why that knowledge might matter. In order to fill that gap, I trace a dominant narrative that positions institutionalized biomedical knowledge and technology as the exclusive producers of health and safety for birthing women and their babies in …

An Aloha State Of Mind: Performing Hawaiian Cultural Identities, Kirsten E. Ogden

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

There are many Hawaiian identities currently in effect. This dissertation explores several representative and contested Hawaiian identities, and how these identities develop through key performances, plays, and other representational practices by Hawaiians and by Locals. Due to its unique situation as one of only two U.S. states formerly with its own government, and as one of only two U.S. states not connected to the main land-mass of the United States, Hawaiian identity is complicated by multiple factors: sanitized historical constructions, sovereignty, intermingling ethnic identities, tourism, and reclaimed cultural practices. Additionally, Hawaiians as a native people hold a unique place in …

The Role Of Ad-36 And Its E4orf-1 Protein In Modulating Glycemic Control, Emily Jane Dhurandhar

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Current treatment strategies for Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) include a range of anti-diabetic drugs, supplemented by lifestyle modifications to reduce dietary fat intake and body fat. However, for their anti-diabetic action, most drugs recruit insulin signaling pathways, which are already impaired in T2DM. Also, compliance and success in achieving sustained improvements in diet or obesity over the long term is marginal. Therefore, an agent that improves diabetes independent of insulin signaling or lifestyle changes may be highly useful. Human adenovirus Ad36 offers such a model. Ad36 improves glycemic control in chow-fed mice or rats and attenuates diabetes and hepatic …

When The Saints Go Marching In: An Ethnography Of Volunteer Tourism In Post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans, Jennifer Lea Erdely

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This original study examines a new phenomenon in New Orleans tourism. Since Hurricane Katrina hit in late August 2005, droves of individuals and groups have come to New Orleans to help rebuild the city. Through conducting fifty interviews with these individuals from 2008-2009, the author traces the steps of volunteer tourists in post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans. This study investigates the experiences of volunteer tourists. Additionally, the author immersed herself with volunteer tourism groups to experience volunteering and the groups herself. Through careful inspection of original interviews with volunteer tourists, the author discovers how the volunteer tourists contribute to the city …

The Hegemony Of Language - Literary Writing And The Quest For Subjectivity In The Works Of Michel De Montaigne And Charles Ferdinand Ramuz, Carla Bota Vance

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Starting from the premise that one’s identity is first and foremost construed in language, this dissertation argues that language is the fundamental site of resistance for writers who define themselves through linguistic difference. Recognizing also that language and literary production frequently fall under the control of complex authorities, this thesis examines literature as a site where confrontation is played out aesthetically. Literary writing, in other words, is exposed as a point of intersection between writers whose language draws its sources from a peripheral location and the centers of authority that regulate and dictate what is accepted as artistically and culturally …

In The Ruins Of Zine Pedagogy: A Narrative Study Of Teaching With Zines, Karin H. Degravelles

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study considers the educational significance of zines—small circulation, self-published magazines—by asking how educators who teach with zines encounter and negotiate zine pedagogy. Though the literature on zines and teaching describes many potential benefits, it also describes contradictions and failures, with some researchers even going so far as to claim that “zines do not belong in classrooms” (Guzzetti, Elliott, & Welsch, 2010, p. 71). Through this dissertation, I investigate and complicate these claims by examining the stories and perspectives of teacher/zinesters—educators who teach or have taught with zines in a classroom setting. The project is situated within theories of the …

Modern Myth In Performance: Claiming Identity Through A Reading Of Fantasy Withcraft, Jessica Satterwhite Gray

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In this dissertation, I create a Wiccan dramaturgical lens to analyze three key fantasy sites: The Wizard of Oz film and stage adaptations (especially the Broadway musical Wicked), The Chronicles of Narnia film and theatrical adaptations, and the Harry Potter films and paratheatrical adaptations. These three fantasy stories have significant cultural impact and strong images of folkloric witches. My alternative reading shows how a subgroup can appropriate popular images for their own identity formation. I will analyze how signs, themes, and narrative tropes that otherwise seem ancillary or even anti-witch become highlighted and privileged, creating a different but equally legitimate …

Transatlantic Baggage: Expatriate Paris, Modernism, And The Apprenticeship Of Ernest Hemingway, Patrick Blair Bonds

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

“Transatlantic Baggage: Expatriate Paris, Modernism, and the Apprenticeship of Ernest Hemingway” argues that Hemingway’s expatriation and apprenticeship in modernist Paris from 1921-1925 provided an important impetus for his explorations in gender alterity. The project focuses on a critical-biographical rethinking of Hemingway’s literary development, integrating previous Hemingway biography and gender studies scholarship with new revelations from the manuscript of the forthcoming first two volumes of the Cambridge Edition of the Letters of Ernest Hemingway. An updated study of the author’s literary formation is long overdue; Charles Fenton’s The Apprenticeship of Ernest Hemingway: The Early Years (1954), for example, has served for …

Youtube As A Qualitative Research Asset: Reviewing User Generated Videos As Learning Resources, Ronald J. Chenail

The Qualitative Report

YouTube, the video hosting service, offers students, teachers, and practitioners of qualitative researchers a unique reservoir of video clips introducing basic qualitative research concepts, sharing qualitative data from interviews and field observations, and presenting completed research studies. This web-based site also affords qualitative researchers the potential avenue to share their reusable learning resources for all interested parties to use.

Examination Of Pre- And Post-Vatican Ii Music For The Roman Catholic Liturgy, Andrea C. Panayiotou

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

The Second Vatican Council of 1962-1965 initiated the translation of the Roman Catholic liturgy into languages other than Latin, spurring numerous ethnic musical settings which have seemingly departed from the unitive nature of a universal Latin liturgy. Following an examination of the musical history of the Latin liturgy, this document examines the changes introduced into music for the Roman Catholic liturgy after Vatican II, discussing how different parishes have subsequently incorporated the teachings of the Council with regard to music for the liturgy. The study then addresses specific post-Vatican II musical settings for the liturgy through an analysis of examples …

Exploratory Study Of How Lesbian Women And Gay Men Are Portrayed In Jamaica's Primary Newspaper - The Gleaner, Dancehall Music, And The Works Of Authors Kwame Dawes, Kei Miller, And Staceyann Chin, Victoria E. Cann

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

This thesis examines the treatment of gay men and lesbian women through the multilayered lenses of the local Jamaican newspaper - The Gleaner, Dancehall music, and select works of Kei Miller, Kwame Dawes, and Staceyann Chin. The study is an exploratory one and as such its methodology is not confined to a prescribed model, but instead draws on a diverse range of theorists, some from postcolonialism, feminism, cultural studies, philosophy, Caribbean studies and more. This project's intent is to add to the newly emerging canon on queer Caribbean identities by further exploring societal representations of gay sexuality. The first chapter …

American Legal Theory And American Legal Education: A Snake Swallowing Its Tail?, John Henry Schlegel

Journal Articles

No abstract provided.

Fearing The Youth, Caren Pagel

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

In December 2000, Japanese lawmakers took unprecedented steps to ban Fukasaku Kinji's Battle Royale from theaters prior to its scheduled release. The film was deemed "crude and tasteless" for its portrayal of teen violence in a state run game of kill or be-killed and attempts to ban the film were pursued through the film certification process all the way to the floor of Japanese parliament. This thesis investigates the controversy surrounding the release of Battle Royale and the socioeconomic and cultural factors - in particular, the Japanese recession and widening generation gap of the 1990s - that influenced both the …