Digital Commons Network^™

The Use Of Explicit, Non-Evocative Print Referencing With Preschool Children At-Risk: Implications For Increasing Print Concept Knowledge, Susan Thomas Frank

Theses and Dissertations--Rehabilitation Sciences

The purpose of this research study was to investigate the learning of print concepts (PCs) by preschool children at risk for literacy problems using an experimental treatment: explicit, non-evocative print referencing. Children from low socio-economic status (SES) families have been determined to be at-risk for literacy learning problems including a reduced knowledge of print concepts.

The study incorporated a multiple group (experimental and control) time series design with persistent insertion of treatment to those subjects who were assigned to the experimental condition. Participants included 25 children at-risk, ages 4:0- 4:11 (years: months) who qualified for pre-school services and for subsidized …

Juvenile Injustice: Disproportionate Minority Contact In Oklahoma's Juvenile Justice System, Patrick M. Polasek

Dissertations

Statistics show that minority overrepresentation in the juvenile justice system is not a new phenomenon. The problem, however, is not going away and might even be getting worse. In 2008, the FBI's Uniform Crime Report showed that 52% of juvenile Violent Crime Index arrests, and 33% of juvenile Property Crime Index arrests, are black youths. This occurring while black youth only accounted for 16% of the youth population. These statistics illustrate disproportionate minority contact. The question is whether disproportionate minority contact has improved, and what is influencing minority overrepresentation.

In this dissertation, I examine whether minorities are overrepresented in Oklahoma's …

The Challenges Faced By Portuguese-Speaking Universities In Africa, Stephen Thompson, Jorge Ferrao

Articles

A common challenge faced by members of the Association of Portuguese Language Universities (AULP) and by other higher education institutions around the world is providing access to up-to-date and relevant academic literature. In an age where more research is being published than ever before, institutions need to move with the times and recognise that we should change our approach to tertiary education. This report considers how a university based in a Portuguese speaking country can use e-learning to overcome some of the barriers presented by language in higher education.

Educating And Communicating Through Sociolinguistic Registers: Adolescent Client, Chanaé Jones, Brittany Mayer

Occupational Therapy Capstones

PROBLEM: Currently tests such as the SAT (Scholastic Assessment Test) and ACT (American College Testing), as well as employment use what is identified as formal sociolinguistic register (Joos, 1967 & Payne, 2005). Payne (2005) built upon Joos’ (1967) definition and presented five registers: frozen, formal, consultative, casual, and intimates. Formal register is defined as; one-way participation, no interruption such as is seen with introductions between stangers. Technical vocabulary; “fuzzy semantics" or exact definitions are important. Montano-Harmon (1991) found that many minority and poor students do not have access to formal register at home but rather tend to rely primarily in …

The Shape Of Things To Come: What We Can Learn From Patent Claim Length, Kristen Jakobsen Osenga

Law Faculty Publications

Technology is always changing. Patent law is also constantly evolving, as the courts and Congress continue to make significant changes to this area of law. But what about patents themselves? Some studies have looked at how patent specifications have changed over time, but no one has looked specifically at the most important aspect of a patent, its claims. Given the changes in technology and law, one would anticipate patent claims to have evolved.

Despite the expectations, this paper concludes that patent claim shape is largely unaffected by time, technology, crowded fields, or prosecution time. This paper suggests a possible reason …

Three Recent Works On Contractual Interpretation [Part 2], John D. Mccamus

Articles & Book Chapters

No abstract provided.

Jurisprudence Between Science And The Humanities, Dan Priel

Articles & Book Chapters

For a long time philosophy has been unique among the humanities for seeking closer alliance with the sciences. In this Article I examine the place of science in relation to legal positivism. I argue that, historically, legal positivism has been advanced by theorists who were also positivists in the sense the term is used in the philosophy of social science: they were committed to the idea that the explanation of social phenomena should be conducted using similar methods to those used in the natural sciences. I then argue that since around 1960 jurisprudence, and legal positivism in particular, has undergone …

Evaluating Journal Quality And The Association For Information Systems (Ais) Senior Scholars’ Journal Basket Via Bibliometric Measures: Do Expert Journal Assessments Add Value?, Paul Benjamin Lowry, Gregory D. Moody, James Gaskin, Dennis F. Galletta, Sean L. Humpherys, Jordan B. Barlow, David W. Wilson

Faculty Publications

Information systems (IS) journal rankings and ratings help scholars focus their publishing efforts and are widely used surrogates for judging the quality of research. Over the years, numerous approaches have been used to rank IS journals, approaches such as citation metrics, school lists, acceptance rates, and expert assessments. However, the results of these approaches often conflict due to a host of validity concerns. In the current scientometric study, we make significant strides toward correcting for these limitations in the ranking of mainstream IS journals. We compare expert rankings to bibliometric measures such as the ISI Impact Factor™, the h-index, and …

The Leadership Of Catholic Sisters Who Have Served As College Presidents : The Impact Of Gender And Religion On Leadership Efficacy, Karen M. Scolforo

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

For over a century, Catholic Sisters have assumed leadership roles in higher education. They have impacted the lives of future leaders and empowered women to explore options to domesticity. Despite their profound contribution to higher education leadership, their history is missing from textbooks and library shelves. The purpose of this qualitative and phenomenological research study was to examine the lived experiences of Catholic Sisters who have served as college president; to gain an understanding of their perceptions and perspectives as they relate to leadership and leadership efficacy; to identify the role, if any, that gender and religion have played in …

Cross-Cultural Comparative Study Of Users’ Perception Of The Navigation Organization Of An E-Commerce Web Application, Tetiana A. Bilyayeva

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The object of this study was to assess the influence of native language, as a principal cultural characteristic, one users’ behavior when using a web-based e-commerce application. The study expands on previous research by comparing English and Russian users. The research also considered demographic data to assess additional factors that influence behavior and task performance. The research design encompassed an online shopping application with two different navigation menus. One menu was based on the action-object model and the other was based on the object-action model. The user interface was created in two different languages (Russian and …

Informal Learning Choices Of Japanese Esl Students In The United States, Brent Harrison Amburgey

Dissertations and Theses

This study was designed to explore possible relationships between English language learners past formal language learning experiences and beliefs about language learning on the one hand, and their informal learning choices on the other. Six Japanese English as a second language (ESL) students participated in the study. Participants were interviewed and asked to complete an English study log for one week prior to their scheduled interview. The results of the study suggested that there were likely connections between experiences, beliefs, informal learning choices. For some participants, a singular experience or belief had an effect that seemed to outweigh other experiences …

The Importance Of The Political In Immigration Federalism, Pratheepan Gulasekaram, S. Karthick Ramakrishnan

Faculty Publications

This Article provides a systematic, empirical investigation of the genesis of state and local immigration regulations, discrediting the popular notion that they are caused by uneven demographic pressures across the country. It also proffers a novel theory to explain the proliferation of these policies and queries the implications of this new model for federalism analysis. The story we tell in this paper is both political and legal; understanding immigration politics uncovers vital truths about the recent rise of subnational involvement in a policy arena that courts, and commentators have traditionally ascribed to the federal government. Thus, this article connects the …

The Relationship Between Liturgical Practice And Spirituality In The Church Of The Nazarene With Special Reference To John Wesley's Doctrine Of Christian Perfection, Dirk Ray Ellis

Dissertations

The Church of the Nazarene, following the pattern of the American holiness movement that gave it birth, adopted a modified version of Wesley's doctrine of Christian perfection. During the early years of the denomination Christian perfection was promoted feverishly through revivalism and worship structured after the camp meeting model; however, over time the promotion and propagation of holiness began to wane. Currently, the belief in and pursuit of inward holiness among both clergy and laity are rapidly vanishing. For more than a decade scholars and denominational leaders have recognized that this loss of spiritual vitality has placed the Church of …

Towards A Communicative Theory Of International Law, Timothy Meyer

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Transposing The Urban To The Mall: Routes, Relationships, And Resistance In Two Santiago, Chile, Shopping Centers, Joel Stillerman, Rodrigo Salcedo

Peer Reviewed Articles

Scholars understand shopping malls as central commercial and social settings. Some argue that malls’ designs attract and seduce consumers, while others contend that mall authorities exclude vulnerable groups and prohibit free expression. Ethnographic studies, by contrast, document how consumers interpret and shape malls as social settings. Drawing on qualitative research in two Santiago, Chile, malls, we contend that Santiago’s patterns of socioeconomic segregation and ample public transport facilitate cross-class interactions in malls. These characteristics encourage visitors to transpose practices and meanings from other public settings to the mall, drawing on rules for public interaction. Residents adapt mall infrastructures for noncommercial …

Constitutional Backdrops, Stephen E. Sachs

Faculty Scholarship

The Constitution is often said to leave important questions unanswered. These include, for example, the existence of a congressional contempt power or an executive removal power, the role of stare decisis, and the scope of state sovereign immunity. Bereft of clear text, many scholars have sought answers to such questions in Founding-era history. But why should the historical answers be valid today, if they were never codified in the Constitution's text?

This Article describes a category of legal rules that weren't adopted in the text, expressly or implicitly, but which nonetheless have continuing legal force under the written Constitution. These …

Slavery In The United States: Persons Or Property?, Paul Finkelman

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

From Multiculturalism To Technique: Feminism, Culture And The Conflict Of Laws Style, Karen Knop, Ralf Michaels, Annelise Riles

Faculty Scholarship

The German chancellor, the French president and the British prime minister have each grabbed world headlines with pronouncements that their state’s policy of multiculturalism has failed. As so often, domestic debates about multiculturalism, as well as foreign policy debates about human rights in non-Western countries, revolve around the treatment of women. Yet there is also a widely noted brain drain from feminism. Feminists are no longer even certain how to frame, let alone resolve, the issues raised by veiling, polygamy and other cultural practices oppressive to women by Western standards. Feminism has become perplexed by the very concept of “culture.” …

The Right Not To Keep Or Bear Arms, Joseph Blocher

Faculty Scholarship

Sometimes a constitutional right to do a particular thing is accompanied by a right not to do that thing. The First Amendment, for example, guarantees both the right to speak and the right not to speak. This Article asks whether the Second Amendment should likewise be read to encompass both the right to keep or bear arms for self-defense and the inverse right to protect oneself by avoiding them, and what practical implications, if any, the latter right would have. The Article concludes - albeit with some important qualifications - that a right not to keep or bear arms is …

Learners’ Experiences And Perceptions Of Learning In A Large English As A Second Language Class, In A Public Secondary School In Kenya., Maua Beatrice Aoka

Master of Education

Large classes are a major concern to teachers, students and all stakeholders of education because they are perceived to undermine the quality of education. This study explores learners’ experiences and perceptions of learning in a large ESL class. The study was conducted in a semi-urban public secondary school with large classes of above sixty students per class. A qualitative case study design was used. Methods of data collection included classroom observations, semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions and document analysis. These were used to gather in depth information on the experiences of learners in a large ESL class. Data was transcribed, …

Graduate And Undergraduate Catalog, 2012-2013, Eastern Washington University, Washington State Library. Electronic State Publications

Course Catalogs

Eastern Washington University's course catalog for the 2012-2013 academic year.

The Responsible Gun Ownership Ordinance And Novel Textual Questions About The Second Amendment, Owen Mcgovern

Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology

No abstract provided.

An Exploration Of Secondary Science Grade Teachers' Written Artifacts About Their Experiences With An Online Professional Development In Reading Research And Instruction: A Grounded Theory Study, Carmen Woodhall

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Classroom teachers deal with numerous pressures in their classrooms including students’ difficulty with reading at the middle and high school levels. Often, teachers can identify the problems, but are often unable to rectify them because of a lack of understanding and support in incorporating reading as part of their content area instruction. This research was conducted to investigate the impact of a sustained, online reading professional development on the teaching practice of middle school and high school science teachers who took the 14-week course. This grounded theory research used the reflective assignment, a comprehensive, 10-week, job-embedded assignment of 62 science …

Gifted Students' Engagement In A Middle School Research And Critical Thinking Course, Samuel Crupi Jr

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This action research was an analysis of a group of eighth grade gifted students ‘classroom engagement in a large urban school district. Over a two-week period a variety of data were collected. Data were collected using the Student Engagement Instrument (Appleton & Christenson, 2004), which is a self-report of students’ perceptions of engagement. Observation data of student engagement were collected using a teacher developed student engagement checklist, which measured academic and behavioral indications of student engagement. At the end of the two week observation period students participated in an exit interview focused on their perceptions of student engagement. The student …

Abusive Tax Practices: The 100-Year Onslaught On The Tax Code, Arthur Acevedo

Barry Law Review

No abstract provided.

Humanitarian Intervention And Syria, Eric Engle

Barry Law Review

No abstract provided.

Christianity's Mixed Contributions To Children's Rights: Traditional Teachings, Modern Doubts, John Witte Jr.

Emory Law Journal

(CRC) is a landmark in the modern international protection of children's rights. Adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1989, its fifty-four articles and two Optional Protocols set out a lengthy catalogue of rights for children. The CRC bans all discrimination against children, including on grounds of their birth status. It provides children with rights to life; to a name, a social identity, and the care and nurture of both parents; to education, health care, recreation, rest, and play; to freedom of association, expression, thought, conscience, and religion; and to freedom from neglect or negligent treatment, from physical and …

Promoting Trademark's Ends And Means Through Online Contributory Liability, E. Jordan Teague

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

Trademark law accomplishes its ultimate end--helping consumers easily find, distinguish between, and trust products and services from different brands--through the means of giving markholders an incentive to develop and cultivate these brands in the first place. While individual trademark laws should serve these ends and means, this is not the case with contributory infringement in the United States as applied to the Internet. First, since the doctrine is based entirely in common law with little case law specifically addressing the online context, contributory infringement gives online service providers (OSPs) little notice as to what types of behaviors could result in …

Ontology Management For Universities, Roland Böving

Theses

What is the 'knowledge' of a university? It is the sum of all experiences and all contributions of students and staff. Knowledge ultimately exists, among other things, in the form of theses, articles, lectures and research reports. The largest knowledge pool of a university is made up, however, of the knowledge and expertise of every single member of the university. As a result of the high rate of turnover of people, knowledge and expertise are on the one hand constantly being lost, but this is replaced by a fresh intake of upcoming young students and lecturers reflecting the spirit of …

Acculturation, Psychological Distress, And Family Adjustment Among Russian Immigrants In The United States, Eugene Dunaev

PCOM Psychology Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to investigate the effect of acculturation differences on psychological distress and family functioning in non-Jewish Russian immigrant families. Potential mediating effects of social support and parenting style and moderating effect of the child’s gender were investigated using regression analysis. The sample consisted of 80 Russian immigrant mother-child dyads residing in the northeast region of the U.S. The study included independent assessment of acculturation to American and Russian cultures. Results confirm the presence of associations between acculturative differences, psychological distress, and family problems. A mediational role of social support and parenting style on the impact …