Digital Commons Network^™

The Role Of Contextual Associations In The Selection Of Objects, Noah Patrick Sulman

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This paper describes a sequence of experiments addressing basic questions about the control of visual attention and the relationship between attention and object recognition. This work reviews compelling findings addressing attentional control on the basis of high-level perceptual properties. In five experiments observers were presented with a rapid sequence of object photographs and instructed to either detect or selectively encode a verbally cued object category. When these object categories (e.g. "baseball") were preceded by contextual images associated with a given object category (e.g. "baseball diamond"), observers were less likely to accurately report information about the target item. This effect obtained …

The Abjection Of The Pythia, Alaina Dyann Tackitt

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Recent academic research has garnered considerable popular interest on the matter of whether the Pythia, the Oracle of Delphi, was high. Current findings aim to prove that vapors emitted from beneath the tripod on which the Pythia prophesied were intoxicating, thereby causing her frenzied state and statements. Contemporary scientists’ intense interest in proving that the Pythia was not prophetic evokes the question of why the once widely accepted, now generally rejected, idea that a female body can serve as a vessel for the words of the immortal deity holds such significance for modern science. When this curiosity is considered in …

Global Leadership In Higher Education Administration: Perspectives On Internationalization By University Presidents, Vice-Presidents And Deans, Janice Sullivan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the study was to identify international university administrators' perspectives on organizational strategies to support higher education internationalization. Internationalization is the conscious effort to integrate international, intercultural, and global dimensions into the ethos and outcomes of higher education (NAFSA, 2008). A descriptive survey design method was used and the instrument entitled "Strategic Internationalization Priority Scale" was developed for this research. This study is quantitative and cross-sectional. The online survey was sent to 1,043 top university administrators at 149 universities in 50 countries. These universities had active international agreements with the University of South Florida at the time of …

Ethnic Identities Among Second-Generation Haitian Young Adults In Tampa Bay, Florida: An Analysis Of The Reported Influence Of Ethnic Organizational Involvement On Disaster Response After The Earthquake Of 2010, Herrica Telus

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Drawing upon 20 in-depth interviews with second generation Haitian young adults, I examined the ethnic identities and the involvement in ethnic organizations of the respondents. This study pays particular attention to how involvement in ethnic organizations influenced how the second generation Haitians believed the earthquake affected their identities and how they ultimately responded to the earthquake. Several of the findings revealed differences in how and why the respondents chose to ethnically identify such as Haitian, Haitian-American, black Haitian. The respondents' choice to join an ethnic organization was driven by different desires but the perceived influence of the organization on their …

Narratives Of Architectural Revolution In Online Christian Rhetoric, Quentin David Vieregge

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines how online Christian communities reconcile the democratizing, anti-hegemonic effects of dialogic web tools, such as wikis, blogs, and video-sharing sites with the authoritarian characteristics of some organized religions. In the first chapter, I discuss technodeterminism and what I call the theme of "revolutionary architectures" in digital humanities scholarship. This theme occurs in narratives that assume that a new interface, Internet tool, or type of coding will redefine the rhetorical relationship between writers, readers, and site administrators, usually in a benevolent way. I argue that scholars within the field of Computers and Composition use narratives of architectural revolution …

The Time Machine And Heart Of Darkness: H.G. Wells, Joseph Conrad, And The Fin De Siecle, Haili Ann Vinson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Much work has been done on the relationship between fin de siècle authors H.G. Wells, Joseph Conrad, Henry James, Stephen Crane, and Ford Madox Ford. As Nicholas Delbanco explains, these writers lived closely to one another in Kent during the transition into the Twentieth Century. While scholars have stressed the collaboration between Conrad and Ford and the disagreements between Wells and James, fewer have treated the relationship of Wells and Conrad. Their most widely read works, The Time Machine and Heart of Darkness, share remarkable similarities that reveal common topical influences on both writers. Furthermore, I argue that Wells …

The Obvious Invisibility Of The Relationship Between Technology And Social Values, Jamie P. Ross

Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

We all too often assume that technology is the product of objective scientific research and that technology’s moral value lies in only the moral character of its user. To remove technology from a moral realm, we assume value and context neutrality. Yet the power of technology is a reflection of the values that exist in its developmental context. Technology’s moral realm is visible in the reciprocal relationship between culture and technology in the epidemiology of AIDS, clinical research and practice regarding heart disease, and DNA research. Cultural values decide what counts as a scientific question. When we look at the …

Content-Based Instruction における評価の問題と提案, Suwako Watanabe

World Languages and Literatures Faculty Publications and Presentations

本稿では、CBIにおける評価についての問題点を挙げ、今後の日本語教育でのCBIにおける評価の研究課題と実施課題を提案する。CBIの言語習得に及ぼす効果に関しては、スペイン語やインドネシア語などでは言語習得の向上が報告されているが、日本語については、ほとんど研究が見られない。外国語教育の分野で、CBIの重要性が叫ばれ、また、日本語教育界では、日本学との連携が盛んになるという方向性を考えると、CBI が言語習得に及ぼす効果を調査研究することは必須である。また、第二言語習得の見地からも、これからの研究課題として、実践報告のみならず、評価の研究を進めることを提言する。

CBIコースの実施面では、プレイスメントの重要性、そして、学習目標と評価の不一致からくる問題点を指摘する。具体的には、言語習得の他に教科内容の習得も学習目標に入っているものの、言語能力が障壁となって、教科内容の評価が適切に行えないという問題について述べ、その解決策の一つとして、形式的評価・累積的評価を効果的に取り入れることで、言語能力を向上させ、言語能力が障壁とならないように指導していくことを提示する。また、総合評価としても、論文や口頭発表といった典型的な形式以外に、Bloom（1956）の思考の六段階の概念を組み入れることを提唱し、評価方法の具体例を示す。

Abstract

This paper takes on issues related to the assessment in Content-Based Instruction (CBI). The first point talks about the research needs for Japanese CBI in regards to issues over assessment. The second point presents assessment strategies towards implementation of CBI. There have been a few reports from research studies that have demonstrated the gains in one’s language ability, such as in Spanish and Indonesian. However, very little is reported on the effect of CBI in Japanese. CBI is receiving increasing attention in the field of second/foreign language education. It is therefore critical to investigate the effect …

Ethnic Online Newspapers Vs. Mainstream Online Newspapers: A Comparison Of The News Coverage Of The 2010 Health Care Reform Debate, Masudul Biswas

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study examined the news coverage of the 2010 health care reform in a comparative context of mainstream and ethnic online newspapers. Since health care reform had consequences among all ethnic groups in the U.S., the news coverage of this policy issue warranted an analysis in a diverse media context. The importance of this study lies in the fact that diverse news media provide a wide range of perspectives to the public and policymakers for a better understanding of an issue at stake. In past studies, mainstream media coverage was criticized for emphasizing political conflict and gains and losses over …

Evaluation Of Response To Intervention As A Method Of Improving Student Achievement, Ronald Bruce Farquharson

Abraham S. Fischler College of Education ETD Archive

This applied dissertation was designed to evaluate if implementation of the Response to Intervention (RTI) model had an effect on student academic gains at the target school. The problem that prompted this study was that information on the effectiveness of the RTI model had not yet been determined. The reauthorization of the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act allowed the use of the RTI model as a viable alternative for identifying students who may be experiencing academic difficulties rather than the traditional wait-and-fail model. Data and state assessment scores for sixth-grade students indicated that remediation was necessary. The RTI model allows …

Naturalistic Emotional Speech Corpora With Large Scale Emotional Dimension Ratings, Brian Vaughan

Doctoral

The investigation of the emotional dimensions of speech is dependent on large sets of reliable data. Existing work has been carried out on the creation of emotional speech corpora and the acoustic analysis of emotional speech and this research seeks to build
upon this work while suggesting new methods and areas of potential. A review of the literature determined that a two dimensional emotional model of activation and evaluation was the ideal method for representing the emotional states expressed in
speech. Two case studies were carried out to investigate methods of obtaining natural
underlying emotional speech in a high quality …

Combining Natural Language Processing And Statistical Text Mining: A Study Of Specialized Versus Common Languages, Jay Jarman

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation focuses on developing and evaluating hybrid approaches for analyzing free-form text in the medical domain. This research draws on natural language processing (NLP) techniques that are used to parse and extract concepts based on a controlled vocabulary. Once important concepts are extracted, additional machine learning algorithms, such as association rule mining and decision tree induction, are used to discover classification rules for specific targets. This multi-stage pipeline approach is contrasted with traditional statistical text mining (STM) methods based on term counts and term-by-document frequencies. The aim is to create effective text analytic processes by adapting and combining individual …

Role Of Cmc-Embedded Webquests In Enhancement Of Online Students' Knowledge And Understanding Of German Culture - A Case Study, Radhika Lothe

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Existing approaches to teaching `culture' in the realm of Distance foreign language (FL) instruction and gaps within; under-researched Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) tool of webquests; and Mediation in Sociocultural Theory (SCT) have all led to the following case study. This study was guided by the constructs of `culture' in FL instruction, Sociocultural Theory, and literature in CALL and Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC).

This study examines how CMC-embedded webquests (asynchronous and synchronous CMC components built into webquests) developed online students' knowledge and understanding of German culture. Additionally, this study examines what mediating strategies (Lidz, 2002) were used by the online students …

Technology Use As Transformative Pedagogy: Using Video Editing Technology To Learn About Teaching, Michelle Macy

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Within the paradigm of Sociocultural Theory, and using Activity Theory as a data-gathering and management tool, this microgenetic case study examined the processes - the growth, change, and development – engaged in by student-teachers in a foreign language education program as they worked together to complete an activity. The activity involved digital video recording and editing, mediators which were intended to facilitate the iterative review of and subsequent reflection and action upon the content of the video during its creation.

By investigating the process of contextual interaction between learners and the mediational elements of their environment as the activity progressed, …

Translation And Adaptation Of The Center For Epidemiologic Studies-Depression (Ces-D) Scale Into Tigrigna Language For Tigrigna Speaking Eritrean Immigrants In The United States, Mulubrhan Fisseha Mogos

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Depression is one of the oldest known mental health conditions. It is acknowledged to be a global health problem that affects people from any culture or ethnic group. The prevalence of depression widely varied across countries and cultures. The cross-cultural relevance of the concept of depression, its screening or diagnosis, and cultural equivalence of items used to measure symptoms of depression has been area of research interest. Differences in prevalence rates in depression have been suggested as being due to research artifacts, such as use of instrument developed for one culture to another culture. With the current trend of globalization …

To See And Be Seen: Exploring Layers Of Instructional Leadership And Supervision In The Enactment Of A District-Wide Teacher Evaluation Reform, Jenifer E. Neale

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation analyzes instructional leadership and evaluation protocols from a large, diverse district in the Southeastern United States in order to investigate layers of accountability and tensions created when principals are asked to fill the dual roles of both instructional leader and supervisor in a newly implemented teacher evaluation system reform. For this dissertation I investigate the role of the principal as a colleague and mentor and compare this with the role of the principal as supervisor and evaluator in hierarchical systems. I include the role of the peer evaluator, a new position, in my analysis. Critical discourse analysis is …

Evaluating The Get Into Fitness Today (Gift) Program: Weight Loss And The Roles Of Education And Empowerment, Emily Koby Novicki

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated the effects of Get Into Fitness Today (GIFT), a health program for adults that promotes balanced nutrition, physical activity, and weight loss through weekly meetings that provide education and social support. In addition to investigating the effects of GIFT, this evaluation sought to better understand explanatory models used by participants and program staff, and the roles of education and empowerment in weight loss and health education. This mixed methods, case study evaluation consisted of quantitative analysis of existing program records for 664 participants, 40 hours of participant observation of class sessions with ten GIFT groups, and follow-up …

Swirling: An Examination Of Time-To-Degree, Reasons, And Outcomes Associated With Multi-Institutional Transfers, Alytrice Robinson Brown

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Swirling is an emergent transfer pattern among college students. Swirlers are students who may have participated in a combination of reverse transfer, lateral transfer, or traditional transfer patterns. The available research on swirling has been predominately quantitative in nature. This study was designed to obtain qualitative data on multi-institutional transfers from a qualitative perspective.

A heuristic phenomenological approach grounded in the transformational learning theory method was used to obtain data. The data were obtained via an online blog-based interview. The interview revealed six themes in regards to why students swirl. This study also addressed time-to-degree and outcomes associated with students …

The Existential Compromise In The History Of The Philosophy Of Death, Adam Buben

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

I begin by offering an account of two key strains in the history of philosophical dealings with death. Both strains initially seek to diminish fear of death by appealing to the idea that death is simply the separation of the soul from the body. According to the Platonic strain, death should not be feared since the soul will have a prolonged existence free from the bodily prison after death. With several dramatic modifications, this is the strain that is taken up by much of the mainstream Christian tradition. According to the Epicurean strain, death should not be feared since the …

Preservice Teachers' Perceptions Of Their Perspective Transformations: A Case Study, Victoria Caruana

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Utilizing a case study approach, this study explored the perspectives of preservice teachers as they relate to working with students with disabilities in inclusive classroom settings. Preservice teachers' perceptions about the extent, if any, their learning experiences during teacher preparation contributed to their perspectives was examined through a sequential exploratory design that employed both quantitative and qualitative data. The findings of this case study of six (6) elementary and secondary preservice teachers indicated that the experiences they had during their final student teaching (internship) were the most meaningful triggers of their perspective transformations. The findings further indicated that four (4) …

Arbitration’S Suspect Status, Hiro Aragaki

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Responding To Narratives Of Sexualized Violence In The College Composition Classroom, Tessa M. Pitré

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

This project examines the multiple challenges inherent in instructor response to narratives of sexualized violence within the college composition classroom. Rape, as well as other forms of sexualized violence, on university campuses is an endemic problem that affects the lives and safety of those who belong to these communities. This project considers, the multiple ways in which narratives of survival or experience of rape and other forms of sexualized violence enter the composition classroom. Drawing from the fields of trauma studies and feminist pedagogy, this paper suggests that there is an institutional failure to talk about sexualized violence in ways …

Recognition Of Library Terms And Concepts By Undergraduate Students, Lydia Ola Adedibu, Isaac Olugbenga Ajala

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

The study investigated the recognition of library terms and concepts used by undergraduate students of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology students, Ogbomoso, Nigeria. 2,039 questionnaires were analysed. Four hypotheses were tested using Analysis of variance (ANOVA). The study revealed that the variables; age, gender, use of library, visitation to library, educational level, and familiarity with library before admission into the university were all significantly positive (P<0.01) thus influencing the extent of awareness of the respondents to the library terms, and concepts. Various recommendations such as librarians to always try to define terms, concepts, and jargon used for the first time, request for feedbacks from students either monthly, quarterly or bi-annually, and try to make access and retrieval of library resources more efficient and user friendly by using the language that users understand.

Biblical Narratives: Their Beauty And Truth, Jo Ann Davidson

Andrews University Seminary Studies (AUSS)

No abstract provided.

The Myth Of The Solid Heavenly Dome: Another Look At The Hebrew, Randall W. Younker, Richard M. Davidson

Andrews University Seminary Studies (AUSS)

No abstract provided.

It Takes A Miracle: An Analysis Of John H. Walton's View Of Cosmic Temple Inauguration, Martin Frederick Hanna

Andrews University Seminary Studies (AUSS)

No abstract provided.

Similarites And Differences Between The Old Testament And The Ancient Near Eastern Texts, Roberto Ouro

Andrews University Seminary Studies (AUSS)

No abstract provided.

The Global Luther: A Theologian For Modern Times [Review] / Christine Helmer, Ed., Trevor O'Reggio

Andrews University Seminary Studies (AUSS)

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“The Lord's Day” Of Revelation 1:10 In The Current Debate, Ranko Stefanovic

Andrews University Seminary Studies (AUSS)

No abstract provided.

The Sabbath In The Pentateuch: An Exegetical And Theological Study, Mathilde Frey

Andrews University Seminary Studies (AUSS)

No abstract provided.