Digital Commons Network^™

Río Que Teme Al Mar, Juan Pablo Roman Alvarado

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Río que teme al mar es una novela de formación, que narra el viaje iniciático de tres personajes: David, Francisco y Violeta, estudiantes universitarios que deciden dejar sus carreras para vivir y aprender a través de las experiencias que tendrán viajando como mochileros y artesanos vagabundos por cuatro de los países de Suramérica: Colombia, Ecuador, Perú y Bolivia. La novela plantea el viaje como una especie de rito de pasaje a la adultez, en el que los personajes deben abandonar la comodidad de su casa para emanciparse y hacerse verdaderos dueños de su vida, es decir, para ganarse el derecho …

Craving Effect Of Unintentional Smoking Cues In Antismoking Images In Light Smokers, Francisco Isaac Salgado-Garcia

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Tobacco use is considered the single most preventable cause of disease, disability, and death in the nation. According to cue-reactivity models, environmental stimuli associated with smoking may elicit cravings in smokers. Antismoking advertisements, may also elicit cravings in smokers because of unintentional use of smoking cues, which may promote smoking maintenance and hinder quitting attempts. The purpose of this study is to assess if cue-reactivity elicits cravings in light and intermittent smokers and if impulsivity serves as a moderator. Data from 155 participants who reported smoking at least once in the past week to 10 cigarettes per day were collected. …

Principles Of Thomas Pynchon's Literary Realities, Ira Anthony Walker

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Thomas Pynchon's literature is unique in subject and style. Postmodern by definition, Pynchon illustrates physics as a societal metaphor; Guy Debord's text The Society of the Spectacle suggests that these societal, literary, metaphors constitute and/or lead to a Spectacle. Through the analysis of an unpublished text: Minstrel Island, an early written short story: "Entropy," and a short novel: The Crying of Lot 49 the reader is capable of seeing a developing theme of physics as metaphor constituting multiple Spectacles. The narrative devices offered by Thomas Pynchon become Spectacular in nature and reflect the characteristics and environment of the tumultuous 1960s …

The Influence Of Schwartz's Values On Teachers' Internet Usage: A Quantitative Study Of Cross Cultural Differences Between European Nations, Meghana Aleti

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This study investigated the Impact of human values on teacher Internet usage at individual levels across various nations. Schwartz's higher order values: Openness to Change, Conservation, Self-Enhancement, and Self-Transcendence are used as value variables. Teachers' are categorized as primary education, secondary education or college level. College teachers showed heavy Internet use when compared to secondary and primary teachers. Conservation higher order value was most significant among college teachers. Openness to Change and Self-Enhancement values are positively correlated with heavy Internet use among various nations. This study should be of interest to education and policy makers interested in comparison of Internet …

Communicative Practices That Lead To Timely High School Graduation Against All Odds: A Positive Deviance Inquiry In A Predominantly Hispanic School, Patricia Teresa A

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The school dropout rate among Hispanics is a major financial, educational, and public concern in the United States. However, some school districts that primarily enroll Hispanic students are succeeding in retaining and graduating their students against all odds, utilizing resources already present within their community. These institutions are "positive deviants" - they are "deviants" because they are not the norm and "positive" because they embody desirable outcomes. In such high schools are enrolled students, who against all odds, work their way to timely graduation. They are positive deviants within their institution. The present study conducted in a U.S.-Mexico border city …

The World In Pictures: Aesthetics And Visual Culture In The Art Classroom, Melissa Burger

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The intent of this thesis is to present an argument for the inclusion of aesthetics and the aesthetics of visual culture within the art education curriculum. Technological advancement has created an age of unprecedented dependence on visual imagery; the pervasive (and sometimes misleading) visual culture of contemporary society affects the way in which individuals understand and relate to their world. The study of the aesthetics of visual culture can impact values within society and culture through the formation of self-identity, maintaining culture, and instituting cultural changes. An engaging visual arts program that builds upon students' lived experiences may be the …

Kandinsky's Nonrepresentational Art: Finding Meaning Through Aesthetic Experience, Kandice Nikkole Diaz

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The art world is not one in which much scholarship has been conducted from a communication perspective. As such, this study attempts to add to the very little body of work that exists in the realms of both art and visual rhetoric. Abstract art, such as that of Wassily Kandinsky, is full of meaning despite the fact that it is nonobjective, and therefore considered meaningless. Using a rhetorical method, I argue that by examining the artwork of Wassily Kandinsky in certain contexts, it is possible to discover the meaning embedded in his abstract paintings, in particular his Compositions and Improvisations.

Pacto Por La Cultura: The Power And Possibility Of Cultural Activism In Ciudad Juárez, Kerry Doyle

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This paper is a qualitative study of Movimiento Pacto por la Cultura , a group of cultural activists that operate in the hyper-violent reality of 21st century Ciudad Juárez. This work looks at Pacto as a case study to explore the possibilities of culture as a tool of activism in a particular time and place, exploring in the ways in which economic development policies, deficiencies in infrastructure, and rising violence both effect and can be affected by cultural processes. Through analysis of the group's original documents and qualitative interviews with organizational members, the paper documents both the successes of the …

Adaptation Of Low Impact Design To The Desert Southwest, Abubaker Ali Alamailes

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

A low Impact Development (LID) practices were used to design an Integrated Management Practices (IMP) system for a residential lot .The design was adapted to the Desert Southwest region based on twenty years of climate data including precipitation and temperature for three representative cities: El Paso, TX, Albuquerque, NM, and Phoenix, AZ. In order to capture stormwater runoff close to its source and to provide as much stored water as possible for plants, LID practices including bioretention cells and vegetated swales were applied throughout the lawn. The purpose of the design is to maintain the pre-development hydrologic characteristics of the …

Taking A Turn Toward The Masculine: The Impact Of Mortality Salience On Implicit Leadership Theories, Crystal L. Hoyt, Stefanie Simon, Audrey N. Innella

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

The present research investigates the influence of subtle death-related thoughts (i.e., mortality salience), on people’s images of effective leaders (i.e., their implicit leadership theories). We test the prediction that mortality salience will change the content of these implicit theories to be more gender stereotypical such that individuals will conceive of effective leaders in a significantly more masculine, or agentic, manner. To test this prediction, we assessed participants’ communal and agentic implicit leadership theories after they were presented with a mortality salience or control manipulation. Results show that priming individuals to think about their mortality with two open-ended questions resulted in …

The Second-Generation Effects Of Microcredit In Western Guatemala, Jordyn Elizabeth Haught

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Most microfinance institutions have assumed that positive second-generation effects follow involvement in microcredit, but the nature of these effects has been unclear since few scholars have directly focused their attention on them. To address this gap in the literature I conducted exploratory survey research in Western Guatemala in January 2011. I returned with 97 interviews conducted with 68 Guatemalans who had received a microloan at some point in their lives, and 29 who had never received a formal loan. In the sample of their 306 children, the parents of 94 had never received a loan, while the parents of 212 …

Child Development And Child Rearing In Ciudad Juárez, México Colonias: Economic, Social, And Cutural, Alma Angelica Hernandez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Supporting the development of healthy children is a goal for parents. Proper development becomes a challenge when children do not receive adequate health care, educational enrichment, and housing. These challenges are amplified by the continuous rise in violence in the U.S.- México border region. This study looks specifically at child development and child rearing practices in two poor colonias (neighborhoods) in Ciudad Juárez (Chihuahua, México). It relies on and extends from a project conducted by Gente a favor de gente and funded by the Paso del Norte Health Foundation. There were 2 phases in this study: a quantitative phase (N=151) …

Political Socialization Through Education As A Form Of State Building, Aldo Lopez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The objective of this study is to observe the effect of political socialization through education as a tool for state building in three case studies. A background into the topics of political socialization and civic education is made. Civic education theory is applied to the state building experiences of Croatia, Slovenia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. After a qualitative review of the data available, findings are presented and discussed. Further commentary of the impact of such studies within the field of political socialization is also discussed.

Responding To Haiti's Earthquake: Volunteer Health And Community Relationships, Mary Nelan

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Disaster volunteers are an important group of workers on the ground after a disaster. International volunteers have not been the subject of much research in the past. Following the January 12, 2010 earthquake in Haiti, an American-based NGO set up a base in Leogane, the epicenter of the earthquake. The purpose of this research is to further understand the disaster volunteer population and help inform international NGOs who respond to disasters. This thesis focuses on the volunteers who worked with that organization during 2010. As a volunteer, I witnessed the situations that inspired this research through my own experiences for …

What Motivates Females To Participate In Collegiate Level Sports?, Laura Abril Pacheco

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Despite the many health benefits, physical activity trends in females have been previously reported to be lower than males. The purpose of this study is to explore the motivational influences that engage college females to participate in sports. This was a cross sectional, causal-comparative survey study that included mixed methods of data collection. 82 female college athletes from two post-secondary institutions responded to a 35 item Modified Sports Motivation Survey and 7 participants volunteered to be in a focus group discussion. Motivational factors examined were fitness, skill/mastery, fun/excitement, affiliation/recognition, team factors, ego/competition, parental support, and external rewards. Quantitative analysis revealed …

"Dancing On The Corpse's Ashes": Analyzing The Emotional Use Of Music And Genre By At The Drive In And How It Communicates Border Identity, Crystal A. Robert-Segura

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

ABSTRACT

Music has the ability to communicate various facets through the use of lyrics, dissonance and melody. At the Drive In, an emo, post-hardcore band from El Paso, TX won worldwide fame with their last album, Relationship of Command (2000). The band was active from 1993-2001. Throughout their time as a band they were able to communicate their life experiences, as well as the varied cultures that make-up the band.

The band was able to communicate through their music, identity. The band was from the U.S.-Mexico border. The U.S.-Mexico border extends nearly 2,000 miles from San Diego, CA to Brownsville, …

And Then It Clicked, Tanya Marie Robertson

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

And Then It Clicked is a crime fiction novel about an African-American female detective from Louisville, Kentucky who accepts a case centered on the issue of domestic violence. It tells the story of an abused woman murdered in her home. Her husband, initially suspected of the crime, has an air-tight alibi and the family asks Adrienne, the detective, to find out who killed her and why. Adrienne has had past experiences with domestic violence and the new case causes her trauma to resurface.

Making The Honor Roll: Can Schools Learn From Business Excellence?, Oscar Humberto Salcedo

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

ABSTRACT

Our schools and school systems are feeling crunched from different directions. Some stakeholders are clamoring for more accountability, others for better results, and still others to do more with less funding. It is not surprising then that school communities are trying different approaches in an attempt to be responsive to different voices. Several schools have decided to borrow the disciplines of the International Standard known as "ISO 9001:2000" (hereafter ISO 9001) from the business realm in an attempt to address these pressures. This research investigates the applicability and benefits of ISO 9001, as perceived by school administrators and educators …

Insights Into A Multidrug Resistant Escherichia Coli Pathogen Of The Globally Disseminated St131 Lineage: Genome Analysis And Virulence Mechanisms, Makrina Totsika, Scott A. Beatson, Sohinee Sarkar, P Minh-Duy, Nicola K. Petty, Nathan Bachmann, Marek Szubert, Hanna E. Sidjabat, David L. Paterson, Mathew Upton, Mark A. Schembri

School of Biomedical Sciences

No abstract provided.

The Site Of Protonation Of A Distorted Bicyclic Lactam: Nitrogen Vs Oxygen, Brian T. Sliter

Master's Theses and Capstones

Protonation of typical unstrained amides and lactams is favored at oxygen. Protonation of highly distorted lactams such as 1-azabicyclo[2.2.2]octan-2-one is favored at nitrogen. Density function theory calculations at the B3LYP/6-31G* level, as well as QCISD(T)/6-31G* calculations, predict that 1-azabicyclo[3.3.1]nonan-2-one favors protonation at nitrogen only very slightly (<2.0 kcal/mol; "gas phase") over protonation at oxygen. 1H and 13C NMR as well as ultraviolet (UV) studies of this lactam, confirm the lactam is primarily protonated at the nitrogen. Experimental spectra clearly support the N-protonated boat-chair, in contrast the calculations show the N-protonated chair-chair conformation is lower in energy. Broadened resonances in the 13C NMR spectrum suggest an exchange phenomenon. Variable-temperature studies of the 13C NMR spectra support dynamic exchange between the major tautomer (N-protonated) and the minor tautomer (O-protonated) in a roughly 4:1 mixture.

The Shift In Coaching Dynamics During Long-Term Business Coaching Relationships, Axel Meierhoefer

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

The focus of this dissertation was on the changes in long-term external business coaching relationships (defined as more than 4 months). The current study intended to answer two questions: (a) how does the relationship between a coach and a coachee change in long-term coaching engagements? and (b) how do these changes impact the coaching process dynamics and results? The phenomenon that was discovered through this research is called the shift moment. It exemplifies the transition from skill or problem oriented issues, which often represent the original cause of the coaching relationship, to the holistic transformation of the coachee. A qualitative …

Saving Haiti's Children From Hell, W. Harren H. Binford

Intercultural Human Rights Law Review

Haiti's devastating earthquake in January 2010 left thousands of children orphaned and tens of thousands separated from their families. Following the earthquake, foreign militaries, nongovernmental agencies, humanitarian aid workers, missionaries, and volunteers descended en masse on the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere to help the victims, especially children, in the midst of the disaster. Unfortunately, some of those who came to help Haiti's children showed little regard for the domestic and international legal protections in place to protect child victims of disaster. As a result, these individuals, organizations, and governments added additional layers of chaos and alienation to these …

Convict Criminology Prisoner Re-Entry Policy Recommendations, Stephen C. Richards, Jeffrey Ian Ross, Greg Newbold, Michael Lenza, Richard S. Jones, Daniel S. Murphy, Robert S. Grigsby

Social and Cultural Sciences Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Women Under Attack: Violence And Poverty In Guatemala, Corinne Ogrodnik, Silvia Borzutzky

Journal of International Women's Studies

In 2009 Guatemalan women experienced the highest level of violence in Latin America and one of the highest in the world, and death rates have continued to increase in 2010. At the core of the issue are two major problems: pervasive poverty and legal exclusion. In turn, these two issues are closely connected since legal/judicial exclusion is a consequence of poverty. This paper aims to analyze the question of violence against women in Guatemala, to discuss women’s limited political, legal and economic rights, as well as the policies pursued since the end of Guatemala’s civil war to deal with the …

Finland Lies About A Historic Suffrage Achievement. Really? Finland? Yup., Mark W. Powell

Journal of International Women's Studies

No abstract provided.

Book Review: Challenging Identities: Muslim Women In Australia, Peliwe P. Mnguni

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of Challenging Identities: Muslim Women in Australia, edited by Shahram Akbarzadeh.

Book Review: In The Public Eye, Susan Iverson

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of In the Public Eye by Joanne Kilgour Dowdy

Experimental Investigation Of Magnesium/Regolith Combustion For In-Situ Production Of Materials On The Moon, Christopher White

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Future settlements on the Moon will require that strong, cost-effective structural materials be developed in whole or in part from locally available resources. Such materials can be created in-situ from the lunar regolith using self-propagating high-temperature synthesis (SHS). By mixing the lunar regolith with metal additives, such as aluminum or magnesium, a combustible mixture is formed which, when ignited, can reach temperatures high enough to allow combustion to be self-sustaining, sintering the lunar regolith without further energy input and without the need for atmospheric oxygen. The resulting products may be strong enough for some structural applications, such as radiation shielding, …

Utepcam: A Scalable Wireless Vision Sensor Architecture For Computational, Power And Bandwidth Constrained Scenarios, Ricardo Zepeda

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

UTEPcam is a low cost and power vision sensor node system. UTEPcam is composed of an Atmel atmega32 8-bit microcontroller, a CY7C09099V static RAM chip, an OV6620 CMOS image sensor, a XBEE transceiver and a SD Flash memory card, and four logic gates. UTEPcam's simple yet efficiently architecture enables it to capture video at one frame per second. At its absolute highest, it is estimated that UTEPcam consumes only 1.321 Amps. When in standby, UTEPcam consumes 21 microamps. Furthermore, UTEPcam's program takes up only 1Kbyte of memory space.

UTEPcam's CPU, a simple 8-bit MCU, is unlike most vision sensor node …

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 …