Digital Commons Network^™

Analysis Of Features Composing An Automated Text Readability Formula., Michael Schneider

Undergraduate Honors Theses

In an effort to make reading more accessible, an automated readability formula can help pair readers with material appropriate for their reading level. This study attempts to discover and analyze a set of possible features that may be included in a future automated readability formula. This set is not a definitive list of readability formula features, but rather an overview of current features being study in the Natural Language Processing field.

Spring Commencement: May 11, 2013, University Of North Dakota

UND Commencement Programs

UND Spring Commencement program from May 11, 2013.

Puerto Rican Students' Perspectives Of Socio-Cultural Characteristics Of Giftedness And Talent Development, Miriam Morales Taylor

Doctoral Dissertations

Puerto Rican Students’ Perspectives of Socio-cultural Characteristics of

Giftedness and Talent Development

Miriam Morales Taylor

University of Connecticut, 2013

This qualitative study was conducted to investigate the social and cultural characteristics of gifted and talented students and their perceptions of the educational factors that have contributed to the development of their gifts and talents. Twelve Puerto Rican English Language Learner (PR-ELL) students who are identified as gifted and attend a full-time academy for gifted and talented students were selected for the study. Both ethnography and comparative case methodology were used as the participants completed a questionnaire with 67 questions and …

Relationships Between A Social-Emotional Learning Program And Emotional Intelligence In Middle School Students, Katherine M. Brown

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the relationships between a social-emotional learning program and the 5 dimensions of emotional intelligence and whether the relationships were moderated by gender. The problem addressed in the study was the lack of research focused on the development of emotional intelligence at the middle school level. The participants included 28 middle school students from a southeastern state who engaged in a 36 hour social-emotional learning program facilitated by a public university. The BarOn EQ-i:YV was administered pre and post. Demographic data including age, gender, race, and school type were also gathered. Data were analyzed using a one-way repeated …

Instructional Approaches In Social Studies: A Comparison Of The Impact On Student Achievement And Attitude, Carolyn Gaye Tucker

Theses and Dissertations

Many students feel that studying social studies is boring and not relevant to their lives. In social studies, the most common method of instruction is the transmission model in which the textbook becomes the curriculum and the teacher transmits knowledge through lecture. In the participatory model of instruction, the teacher facilitates student-led literature discussion groups utilizing narrative and expository trade books with the textbook as a resource. Previous research has indicated that instructional methods may affect student attitude and achievement; however, there is limited empirical research that is definitive on which instructional method is significantly better for students. The purpose …

Student And Instructor Perceptions Of The Use Of Online Translators In English Composition, Caroline L. Baker

Theses and Dissertations

Given recent calls for university composition policies that are informed by the actual practices and populations of students at a given institution (Tardy, 2011), this study investigated student and instructor perceptions and attitudes toward using online translators (e.g., Google Translate or Babelfish) for composition assignments. The study analyzed interview data from four international students and three English composition instructors to understand how the use of online translators was explained, justified, and contextualized by these two groups. This study revealed that although both students and instructors believed that online translators afforded an opportunity for language learning, the participants still aligned with …

Neural Protection In The Central Nervous System Against Nerve Agent Surrogates Using Novel Pyridinium Oximes, Ronald B. Pringle

Theses and Dissertations

Organophosphates (OPs), including nerve agents, target the cholinergic system via inhibition of acetylcholinesterase (AChE), with subsequent overstimulation resulting in neural damage and potential detrimental long-term effects. The efficacy of novel pyridinium oxime reactivators, created with moieties to increase blood-brain barrier penetration, was tested using highly relevant sarin and VX surrogates. Glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP; an indicator of neural damage) and monoamines (dopamine, serotonin, and their metabolites) were measured in select brain regions via immunohistochemistry and HPLC, respectively. Adult male rats were treated ip with high, sub-lethal doses of surrogates for sarin or VX, nitrophenyl isopropyl methylphosphonate (NIMP) or nitrophenyl …

Perceptions Of Effectiveness Of Interpretation Services In The Washington County Court System., Ricardo Tapia Mosqueda

Undergraduate Honors Theses

In the United States, court interpretation services are as old as the country’s history. The cultural and rich ethnic diversity of the U.S. has continued to provide a need for interpretation services. However, it was not until 1978 under the Federal Court Interpreters Act that the federal government would institute a framework for the federal courts to follow (Public Law 95-539, 1978). State courts were left to establish their own methodologies for addressing the way in which court interpreters are used. As the U.S. continues to become more linguistically diverse, such services need to be made easily accessible whenever necessary. …

Contextual Influences On Phonetic Categorization In Developmental Populations, Jean Alexandra Campbell

Master's Theses

A major goal of research in the domain of speech perception has been to describe how listeners recover individual consonants and vowels from the speech stream. A major challenge to this task is explaining how this is possible given the extreme variability present in the speech signal. In healthy adults, findings have repeatedly demonstrated that the key to healthy perceptual processing system is dynamically adjusting phonetic boundaries to accommodate contextual influences in speech production. The current study seeks to determine if school-aged children demonstrate the same functional plasticity for systematic variation. Collectively, we found that older children (8-10 years of …

Feedback-Related Negativity, Decision-Making, And College Binge Drinking, Laura C. Wahlstrom

Department of Psychology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Despite increased prevention efforts, binge drinking remains a prevalent issue among college students. Myriad negative consequences are associated with binge drinking (e.g., academic impairment, injury, legal trouble); however, it appears a subset of individuals do not alter future drinking to reduce their risk. This suggests that some binge drinkers are less sensitive to alcohol-related negative outcomes, which may stem from individual differences in neurocognitive functioning. The present study draws from a reinforcement learning theory framework to explain disparities in learning from negative outcomes. Specifically, an electrophysiological measure associated with diminished responsiveness to negative consequences (i.e., feedback-related negativity; FRN) and a …

The Lived Experience Of African American Nurses Who Attended Predominantly White University Baccalaureate Programs: Characteristics Of Success And Resilience, Carmen A. Stokes

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

This qualitative dissertation explores the lived experiences of successful African-American nurses who attended baccalaureate programs at predominantly White universities (PWUs). Only 5.4% of the national registered nurse workforce is identified as African American; yet African-American citizens account for approximately 12.9% of the United States' population, and 24% of all enrollments in nursing programs nationwide is composed of African-American students. Past nursing education research has almost exclusively focused on the deficits of African-American students. This dissertation study focuses on a gap in the literature because it addresses the strengths and attributes of those African-American students who succeed, thereby contributing to an …

Women And The Epistemologies Of Pleasure: An Analysis Of Female Sexual Appetites And Practices At Bucknell University, Heather Wakeman

Honors Theses

Using an epistemological and feminist lens, this thesis analyzes the political and social forces that actively construct both knowledge and ignorance around female sexual pleasure. It draws from interviews and a focus group, all conducted at Bucknell Unviersity to explore the journeys that women take to gain knowledge about sexual pleasure, and how the sources and cultural mores that women in the twenty-first century rely on or go up against in order to gain such knowledge are often limited, unauthorized or phallocentric. This aids in the construction and perpetuation of ignorance. This thesis looks at how women feel shame or …

The Acquisition Of The Nongeneric Uses Of The English Definite Article The By Arabic Speakers Of English, Aied M. Alenizi

Theses

This study aimed to investigate the acquisition of the four non-generic uses of the English definite article the by Arabic learners of English in Saudi Arabia. These non-generic uses included textual, situational, cultural and structural. This study had three goals: (1) to determine whether these uses are acquired in a certain sequence; (2) to explore which one of these uses is the most difficult and the easiest in learning; (3) to investigate whether one or two of the uses are overused.

The instrument consisted of 59 sentences adopted from Liu and Gleason (2002). There were 40 instances for required uses …

Undefined & Indefinable: Androgynous Imagery In The Work Of Hannah Höch, Michelle D. Sizemore

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

Bilingual Welfare Notice Not Required - Guerrero V. Carleson, 9 Cal. 3d 808, 512 P.2d 833, 109 Cal. Rptr. 201 (1973), Mary Beth Diez

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Unwritten Law And Its Writers, Frederick J. Moreau

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

Post-Revolution Language Change In The Libyan Media: Tamahaq News Broadcast, Ashour Abdulaziz

Student Research Symposium

This paper examines segments from the very first Tamazight language TV news broadcast in the history of Libya in May 11, 2011. In the analysis, I focus on (a) Tamazight-Arabic code switching and (b) the profound influence of Arabic on the Tamazight spoken in this situation. Before the February 17 Revolution, such a broadcast was unthinkable, as the use of the language in such public contexts was outlawed during Gaddafi's rule. Post Feb. 17, the Tamazight language emerged in the media as a new linguistic spoken and written resource in the Libyan setting itself up as in contrast to and …

Learning & Practice Sessions: Contributing To A Strong Academic Foundation For Undergraduate Csd Students, Erin E. Robling, Susan Ginley, Rik Lemoncello

Student Research Symposium

While the scope of practice for speech-language pathologists has expanded dramatically, graduate clinical training remains a two year master’s degree. A solid foundation in undergraduate communication sciences and disorders (CSD) coursework is ever-more essential to prepare students for the breadth of knowledge and skills obtained in graduate school. How are undergraduate/post-baccalaureate CSD programs evolving to meet this challenge? This study proposes one such enhancement. Learning & Practice Sessions are a program by which peer undergraduate and post-baccalaureate students lead weekly, post-class review sessions during which participating students have an opportunity to review the week’s material, discuss challenging concepts, examine anatomical …

Magical Realism As A Means Of Expressing Cultural Disjunction In Alejo Carpentier's 'El Reino De Este Mundo', Ryan Saul Cunningham

Student Research Symposium

Cuban writer Alejo Carpentier's 1949 novel El reino de este mundo is considered to be a key work in the development of the magical realist narrative idiom. The narrative includes instances of the fantastic -- including ghosts and animal metamorphoses -- that the novel's Afro-Caribbean characters accept as factual. In keeping with his suggestions that "the entire history of America [is] a chronicle of the marvelous real," Carpentier supposes that these elements elucidate an "authentic" New World mode of perception. However, the novel's narrative structure belies the author's objective. The concurrent presentation of both non-Western/magical and Western/disenchanted cultural paradigms prevents …

Mathematics Orality And Literacy, Beverly Orth

Student Research Symposium

To become a mathematician, a student must learn how to "do" mathematics and also how to communicate with other mathematicians. Through a special language, both oral and written, mathematicians share a discourse community. This community extends not only across the boundaries of natural language, but also across centuries. My paper explores the following question: How does a person enter the discourse community of mathematicians? My research shows that learning mathematics parallels the learning of natural language reading and writing. Much like learning a foreign language, learning mathematics has been based mostly on oral tradition. The orality of mathematics learning is …

Five Macalester Graduating Seniors And One Alumna Receive Fulbrights, Macalester College

College Press Releases

No abstract provided.

It's A Big World After All ... The Pitfalls Of Digitizing And Describing A Linguistics Project By Non-Linguists, Ramona Holmes, Krystal E. Schenk

UTA Libraries Staff Publications - Archive

A digitized collection of linguistics recordings made by Jimmy G. Harris, a former employee of the United Nations who worked for several decades in many far-flung parts of the world. The recordings are unique, capturing languages and dialects from speakers in currently politically unstable countries where field work is difficult if not impossible. Furthermore, since the recordings were made from the 1960s to the 1980s, they also represent a unique capture of these speakers during a specific time. Adding this digital collection to our institutional repository posed some unique challenges, including reel to reel capture of sound from materials that …

Where Is "Home"? Value Conflicts, Identity Crises And The Formation Of Cosmopolitan Identity In Myanmar Students Studying In The United States, Hein Tun

Honors Theses

Fully engaging in a new culture means translating oneself into a different set of cultural values, and many of the values can be foreign to the individual. The individual may face conflicting tensions between the psychological need to be a part of the new society and feelings of guilt or betrayal towards the former society, culture or self. Many international students from Myanmar, most of whom have little international experience, undergo this value and cultural translation during their time in American colleges. It is commonly assumed that something will be lost in the process of translation and that the students …

The Effects Of Intervention Involving A Robot On Compliance Of Four Children With Autism To Requests Produced By Their Mothers, Holly Jeanne Nelson

Theses and Dissertations

The current study presents the use of a humanoid robot to facilitate compliant behaviors to two types of directives in four children with autism. The children participated in a three-month intervention program that incorporated core components of the SCERTS model in order to facilitate social communication (Prizant, Wetherby, Rubin, & Laurent, 2003). Treatment sessions were comprised of 40 minutes of traditional treatment and 10 minutes of interaction with a humanoid robot. Pre- and post-intervention assessment were conducted, each involving a 5 minute interaction with the child's mother, in which they were presented with directives in the form of physical manipulation …

Locating Linguistic Power Relationships: A Glimpse Into Transnational Feminist Dialogue Through Comparison Of Major Feminist Publications In The Us And China (2000-2012), Shuli Han

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Does the use of English as a universal language in the transnational feminist dialogue empower women globally? In what way does English shape the flow of conversation by circulating some feminist knowledge while neglecting others? Through conducting content analysis research on major feminist publications in both China and the US, this thesis probes the limitations of English as “Lingua Franca” through comparing authors, topics, and the use of references in the Collections of Women’s Studies (CWS), the most prestigious feminist journal in China, with Signs, one of the core feminist journals in the US. Through the comparison …

Public Policy And Aviation Liability Insurance, William E. Gibbs

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

Eating Spaces And Places: Examining The Latin@ Barrio, Chinatown, And Black Urban Space As Sites Of Collective And Social Imagination, Kathlynn E. Hinkfuss

American Studies Honors Projects

I focus on three specific neighborhood tropes that are commonly understood and accepted in the American social imagination: the Latin@ Barrio, Chinatown, and Black Urban Space. I examine how these three neighborhood tropes show up in and play out on physical examples of these spaces. I identify three currently existing neighborhoods in the Upper Midwest: the South Side of Milwaukee, Chinatown in Chicago, and North Minneapolis. To more specifically interrogate the connection between the abstract and concrete, I argue that specific sites of analysis in each neighborhood are symbolically and physically consumed: the Mexican restaurant “La Perla” in Milwaukee, the …

The Utility Of Darkness: Figments Of A State Called The Democratic Republic Of The Congo, Aimee M. Mackie

International Studies Honors Projects

Since the Heart of Darkness brought the cruelty of King Leopold’s rule of the Congo to the world’s attention, it has been viewed internationally as the locus ofinhumanity. My thesis examines how this perception has excused the role of neocolonial actors in furthering destabilization. After independence, the United States and Belgium, with the assistance of Mobutu Sese-Seko, exploited the nominally sovereign Congo. The weakening of the Congolese state has continued in recent years through a lack of accountability for international interventions brought about by bureaucratic secrecy, popular ignorance, and human rights rhetoric.

Dating Human Cultural Capacity Using Phylogenetic Principles, J. Lind, P. Lindenfors, S. Ghirlanda, K. Lidén, M. Enquist

Publications and Research

Humans have genetically based unique abilities making complex culture possible; an assemblage of traits which we term “cultural capacity”. The age of this capacity has for long been subject to controversy. We apply phylogenetic principles to date this capacity, integrating evidence from archaeology, genetics, paleoanthropology, and linguistics. We show that cultural capacity is older than the first split in the modern human lineage, and at least 170,000 years old, based on data on hyoid bone morphology, FOXP2 alleles, agreement between genetic and language trees, fire use, burials, and the early appearance of tools comparable to those of modern hunter-gatherers. We …

“Finding A Manageable Body Of Content”: Seven Literacy Teacher Educators Explore The Constraints On What They Teach, Cheryl A. Kreutter, Kathleen Hinchman, Clara Beier, Mary Shea, Maria Anne Ceprano, Elizabeth Tynan, Jan Harting-Mcchesney

Journal of Inquiry and Action in Education

Teacher educators are engaged in a perpetual quest to squeeze as much as possible into preparation of new classroom literacy teachers. In response to increasing demands for preparing future teachers for modern classrooms, seven teacher educators tackled the question of what constitutes a manageable body of early literacy content in preservice coursework. Through retrospective analysis, they discovered common constraints among their institutions that influence their decision-making about when, what, and how much content to teach. These constraints include teacher educators’ beliefs about teaching literacy methods, time and resource management issues, range of students’ needs, and influences of local and national …