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The History Of Nusayris ('Alawis) In Ottoman Syria, 1831-1876, Ali Capar

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Syrian provinces of the Ottoman Empire experienced significant events, such as the Egyptian invasion, the Tanzimat Reforms and the increasing activities of Protestant missionaries between 1831 and 1876. In this thesis, I tried to analyze the course of the Ottoman-Nusayri relationship between 1831 and 1876, the treatment of the Ottoman government toward the Nusayris, outcomes of the Egyptians and the Ottoman reforms in the region and among the Nusayris, the reaction of the Nusayris to these reform policies, and the activities of the Protestant missionaries among the Nusayri community.

Math, Science, And Social Studies Teachers' Attitudes Toward Diversity And Accommodation Of Diversity With Reference To Culturally And Linguistically Diverse Seventh, Eighth, And Ninth Grade Students In A Mid-South State, Nadia Khrais

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was exploring seventh, eighth, and ninth grade teachers' attitudes and beliefs in response to classroom diversity and how that is reflected on their instruction, learning styles, communication patterns, instrumental materials, and assessment patterns in math, science, and Social studies subject areas. In this mixed-method research, the designed survey consisted of 59 questions based on Likert scale and obtained information of ten demographic factors. The survey was delivered in two formats (online link and hard copy) to the participating schools in three urban school districts in a Mid-South State. The survey data were analyzed by using …

Talker Identification Learning And New Jersey Dialect Discrimination, Michael Patrick Apfelbaum

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Previous studies have demonstrated that individuals can be trained to identify a speaker by voice. Other research has found profound regional differences in dialect across the US, with individuals being able to generally discriminate between them at above chance levels. However, little research has investigated the ability to discriminate between two similar dialects or the effect of using bisyllabic words in talker training. The present study aims to explore the patterns of talker learning and dialect discrimination which arise from training talkers on the two predominate dialects spoken in New Jersey. To investigate such factors, the current research trained 24 …

What Is Woman? : Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Ladies Almanack, And Woman's Search For Her Identity In The 1920s, Timothy Coyne

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

In the introductory chapter of her book, The Gender o f Modernity, Rita Felski writes, “If our sense of the past is inevitably shaped by the explanatory logic of narrative, then the stories that we create in turn reveal the inescapable presence and power of gender symbolism” (1). Anita Loos’s Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and Djuna Barnes’s Ladies Almanack are two such stories; however, they both do more than simply reveal gender’s presence and power. These works of literature question the gender ideologies of the early twentieth century, challenging their power and inescapability by producing other, perhaps unknown, unthought of or …

The Transformative Power Of Voice In George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion, Nicole L. Scimone

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion is first and foremost a play about voice, particularly about the voice of flower-girl-tumed-lady Liza Doolittle. Though the voice is not Liza’s true self, it is the way the Liza’s identity can be expressed, and thus an important marker of identity transformations in the play. This work explores three different ways in which Shaw discusses voice in the play: as singing instruction, scientific methods for recording voice, and vocalizing automata and dolls.

First, the play is deeply influenced by Shaw’s background in singing instruction from his childhood. Shaw learned voice study from his mother’s beau, a …

Alcoholism On The American Stage: De-Stigmatizing Socially Constructed Depictions Of The Alcoholic Through Performance, Thomas Michael Campbell

Dissertations

This dissertation seeks to address the societal problems associated with alcohol abuse and alcohol dependency in relationship to problematic depictions that have appeared on the American stage. It examines plays that perpetuate stigmas as well as plays that seek to subvert stigmas and stereotypical depictions as a means of creating avenues for discourse. This study asks how we, as practitioners of the theatre, can use the theatre and the act of storytelling to initiate empathy and compassion toward what is still considered a marginalized topic of discussion. Cultural misconceptions regarding the development of and (mis)understandings of alcohol abuse/dependency are perpetuated …

Impact Of Multimedia In Sina Weibo: Popularity And Life Span, Xun Zhao, Feida Zhu, Weining Qian, Aoying Zhou

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Multimedia contents such as images and videos are widely used in social network sites nowadays. Sina Weibo, a Chinese microblogging service, is one of the first microblog platforms to incorporate multimedia content sharing features. This work provides statistical analysis on how multimedia contents are produced, consumed, and propagated in Sina Weibo. Based on 230 million tweets and 1.8 million user profiles in Sina Weibo, we study the impact of multimedia contents on the popularity of both users and tweets as well as tweet life span. Our preliminary study shows that multimedia tweets dominant pure text ones in Sina Weibo. Multimedia …

Your Love Is Public Now: Questioning The Use Of Personal Information In Authentication, Payas Gupta, Swapna Gottipati, Jing Jiang, Debin Gao

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Most social networking platforms protect user's private information by limiting access to it to a small group of members, typically friends of the user, while allowing (virtually) everyone's access to the user's public data. In this paper, we exploit public data available on Facebook to infer users' undisclosed interests on their profile pages. In particular, we infer their undisclosed interests from the public data fetched using Graph APIs provided by Facebook. We demonstrate that simply liking a Facebook page does not corroborate that the user is interested in the page. Instead, we perform sentiment-oriented mining on various attributes of a …

Retweeting: An Act Of Viral Users, Susceptible Users, Or Viral Topics?, Tuan-Anh Hoang, Ee Peng Lim

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

When a user retweets, there are three behavioral factors that cause the actions. They are the topic virality, user virality and user susceptibility. Topic virality captures the degree to which a topic attracts retweets by users. For each topic, user virality and susceptibility refer to the likelihood that a user attracts retweets and performs retweeting respectively. To model a set of observed retweet data as a result of these three topic specific factors, we first represent the retweets as a three-dimensional tensor of the tweet authors, their followers, and the tweets themselves. We then propose the V 2S model, a …

‘Russia Wins Space Race’, N Barnett

School of Law, Humanities and Social Sciences

This article traces the development of the British press narrative from the launching of Sputnik in October 1957 to the Soviets' second satellite, containing a dog, in early November. It argues that there was an initial outpouring of surprise, combined with celebration of humankind's achievement. There was also a sense of loss of national prestige, due to Britain's lack of an equivalent space programme and the decline of her empire. The launch of the dog prompted widespread condemnation, mixed with frivolous popular coverage. The article provides an insight into how this moment impacted on British society and understanding of national …

Narrative Medicine And Traditional Medical Interviewing Approaches In Women With Breast Cancer, Wendy L. Hine

Communication ETDs

Interactions between early-stage breast cancer patients and their medical providers were analyzed, focusing on the content of the medical encounter and the patients' subsequent recall of that information. Traditional biomedical interviewing, narrative medicine approaches, and emerging types of dialogue were coded within these encounters. Observations of patient-provider interactions, structured and semi-structured patient interviews, and document analysis enriched this investigation. No "pure type" of patient-provider interaction was found. In order to relate the complex information about diagnoses and treatment options to women with breast cancer, narrative interactions included considerable biomedical information. Similarly, biomedical interactions often included narrative elements. A continuum was …

Social Networking Sites: Social Support, Motivation, And Influences On Chinese International Students' Intercultural Communication Competence, Zhibin Hong

Communication ETDs

The purposes of this study were 1) to examine the status quo and differences in intercultural communication competence and social networking sites use motivation between Chinese international students and U.S. students, 2) to explore the relationship between social networking sites use motivation and intercultural communication, 3) to understand the factors comprising intercultural communication competence, and 4) to develop a model to predict intercultural communication competence. Quantitative survey research was conducted to address these research objectives. The survey research showed that compared with U.S. students, Chinese international students differ in social networking sites use time, frequency, and certain patterns. Also, Chinese …

The Southern Accent And "Bad English": A Comparative Perceptual Study Of The Conceptual Network Between Southern Linguistic Features And Identity, Dean Hayes

Linguistics ETDs

This study investigates how the perception of Southern American English is linked to specific linguistic features, both phonetic and grammatical, in addition to how these features are interpreted differently by two different groups, one Southern and one non-Southern. Using interview-based methodology, I produce a holistic conceptual representation of the identity invoked for each constellation of features for each group and provide a unified framework for features and corresponding associations that previous works have discussed individually. Finally, I analyze imitations offered in interviews, by which means I am able to glean more detailed information from participants than they would otherwise be …

The Realization For The English Voiceless Postalveolar Affricate /Tʃ/ In Najdi Saudi Esl Learners Production, Abdullah Ahmed Alqarni

Theses

The current study investigated the realization for the English voiceless postalveolar affricate /tʃ/ in Najdi Saudi ESL learners' production. The goal of the study was to investigate whether Najdi Saudi ESL learners have difficulties in pronouncing /tʃ/. Both linguistic and extra-linguistic factors were taken into consideration. Eighteen Najdi ESL learners' with different length of residency in the US were the sample of the study. Sixteen English words with /tʃ/ in initial and final position represented the instrument of the study. Data were analyzed using both SPSS and Speech analyzer software. The results showed that Najdi ESL learners have difficulties with …

Word-Initial Consonant Cluster Patterns In The Arabic Najdi Dialect, Bandar Abdulaziz Alghmaiz

Theses

Unlike in Classical Arabic, this study hypothesized that word-initial consonant clusters exist in Najdi Arabic as a result of first vowel deletion. The goal of this study was to investigate the word-initial consonant cluster patterns of Najdi Arabic and measure the sonority scale of this particular position. Ten native Najdi Arabic speakers were asked to pronounce 24 words and 24 sentences that contained all the possible consonant cluster patterns that could occur in Najdi Arabic. The output of the subjects revealed that Najdi Arabic does have initial consonant clusters in certain environments and that the minimum sonority distance was one …

School Culture And Leadership: Teacher Perceptions Of Title I And Non-Title I Schools, Krista R. Crum

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study was conducted to see if teachers perceive a significant difference in school culture and leadership in Title I and non-Title I schools. Specifically, this researcher considered the possibility that teachers working in Title I schools have lower perceptions of their school’s culture and leadership than teachers working in non-Title I schools. A quantitative study was used to find the perceived differences between school culture and leadership in Title I and non-Title I schools. A quasi-experimental design was selected because preexisting data were collected on teachers in an upper East Tennessee region. The data were collected from the TELL …

Pietro Bembo’S Bias: Patronage, History, And The Italic Wars, Zachary M. Lizee

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

During the Italic Wars, the Italian peninsula experienced foreign invasions and internal discord between rivaling duchies and city-states. Florence and Venice both faced internal and external discord due to the constant wars and political in fighting. Venetian Pietro Bembo wrote historical accounts of this period during the Renaissance. His contemporaries, Marino Sanudo, Niccolo Machiavelli, and Francesco Guicciardini, also wrote historical accounts of this time. My research spotlights Bembo’s history of the Venetian Republic. This history was written in a supposedly objective fashion, yet, scholarship shows that historical writing from this time contained bias. I focused on Bembo because there is …

Classifier Constructions As Procedural Signs In American Sign Language, Stephen Perry Jones Ii

Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis I will be analyzing what has typically, in sign language literature, been termed classifiers and classifier constructions. I will be approaching them from the pragmatic perspective by applying Relevance Theory to explain their usage as representations that manipulate and modify their referents. The data comes from texts signed by native users of American Sign Language and are from academic lectures, interviews, narrative, and course curriculum. I have found that Relevance Theory adequately describes why and when classifiers constructions are used and that they function as a procedural referring expression.

Response To Intervention Framework And Progress Monitoring Process: K-3 Regular Education Teachers’ Perceptions, Jarrod G. Adams

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this quantitative study was to investigate the perceptions regular education teachers have of the Response to Intervention framework and the Progress Monitoring Process. Participants of the study included 246 K-3 regular education teachers from 4 Northeast Tennessee school systems. The survey achieved a 42% return rate for a total of 104 participants. Specifically, this research assessed K-3 regular education teachers’ perceptions of the RTI framework as a whole, their perceptions of the progress monitoring process, their perceptions of their readiness to implement an RTI framework, their perceptions of the effectiveness of the professional development opportunities they had …

The Three Dimensions Of Cultural Competency In Art Therapy Education: Awareness, Knowledge, And Skills, Evans Baker

EVMS School of Health Professions Theses & Dissertations

The subject of multicultural competent practice has gained attention from the mental health professions for the last few decades. Many health profession’s associations took actions to ensure that cultural competent practice is one of the major focuses in the educational setting. The American Art Therapy Association understood the necessity of multicultural competency education and in December 2011, announced the Multicultural / Diversity Competencies as a guideline for practicing art therapists and educators to establish cultural competency standards. Lack of research in the subject of multicultural competency inspired this study to examine the art therapy education program in a wide range …

The Art Therapy Technique Of ‘Life Review’: Its Impact On Existential Issues In Older Adults, Emily Victoria Willen

EVMS School of Health Professions Theses & Dissertations

For many older adults, the aging process brings many existential and end-of-life concerns. These concerns may be related to their experiences, their self-concept, and the choices they made throughout their lives. Older adults who are able to sufficiently address these issues are less vulnerable to feelings of depression and hopelessness. The geriatric population is in need of services that will help them resolve existential issues and integrate their experiences into a cohesive sense of self.

This qualitative case study explored the effectiveness of using the art therapy technique of the life review to help an older adult resolve existential questions …

Positive Deviance And Hand Hygiene, In Eui Oh

Theses and Dissertations

Healthcare-associated infections (HAis) are significant problems to our nation since these are n1ajor causes of n1orbidity and mortality and these produce both financial and medical burden. Good hand hygiene is one of the most effective measures for preventing healthcareassociated infections (HAls); however, hand hygiene compliance among healthcare workers is poor. An1ong 1nany strategies to in1prove hand hygiene behavior in healthcare workers, this paper reviews current I iterature on hand hygiene and introduces the Positive Deviance (PD) 1nethod to achieve high hand hygiene compliance and i1nprove hand hygiene behaviors

Existing literatures and guidelines on hand hygiene and PD are synthesized, and …

Justices Hawking Jesus: Endorsement Through Citation To Religious Amici In Supreme Court Opinions, Tiffany Marie Westfall Ferris

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

No abstract provided.

The Effects Of Story Grammar On The Oral Narrative Skills Of English Language Learners With Language Impairments, Rhonda D. Miller

All Dissertations

Studies with monolingual English speakers have demonstrated the significance of children’s narrative development for the acquisition of literacy skills. This research has shown that children’s ability to perform school narrative tasks may significantly predict children’s early literacy skills (Gutiérrez-Clellen, 2002), including English reading comprehension outcomes within and across languages in Spanish-speaking ELLs (Miller et al., 2006). This study investigated the effects of a story grammar intervention that used a Story Grammar Marker ® and repeated story retells on the oral narrative skills of third and fourth grade ELLs with SLI. A single case multiple probe across participants design was used …

Underrepresented Students' Perception Of Their Second-Year In College: A Phenomenological Study, Dena Kniess

All Dissertations

The majority of retention efforts have focused on the first-year of college, however just as many students leave college after their second-year (Berkner, He, & Forest, 2002; Lipka, 2006). Experiences of second-year students have been appearing in publications. These studies have identified the broad concerns of the second-year experience, but little is known about how the second-year experience is similar or different for underrepresented students.
This study sought to describe the experiences of underrepresented college students in their second-year of study at a predominantly White institution (PWI). The study was qualitative in nature, and used phenomenological research methods to form …

Functional Morphology And Performance Of Ecological Systems With Extreme Pressures: Waterfall Climbing And Predator-Prey Interaction In Amphidromous Gobioid Fishes, Takashi Maie

All Dissertations

Understanding the functional capacity and performance of organisms provides a strong foundation for recognizing the forces that are responsible for their form, and how they might adapt to variable or changing environmental conditions. Amphidromous stream goby fishes live in a habitat subject to two potentially extreme selective pressures: (1) predation on juvenile fish returning to freshwater from the ocean, and (2) the demand to climb waterfalls to reach adult breeding habitats. Recognizing these selection pressures, I present studies evaluating (1) the mechanisms underlying the functional capacity for adhesive performance, and (2) the risk that predation imposes on amphidromous gobies. Specifically, …

The Least Restrictive Environment Clause Of The Individuals With Disabilities Education Act And Institutional Ableism: A Critical Discourse Analysis, Laura O'Laughlin

All Dissertations

This study focused on terms anchored in special education and associated stigma of disability in schools. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act ensured the right to education in US public school systems for students with disabilities. An associated term asserted that children with disabilities must be educated in the least restrictive environment (LRE). Yet, IDEA did not address the institutional or social stigma arising in the wake of labeling students as disabled. The stigma, a result of ableism, promotes a premise of normalcy and marginalizes students with disabilities. This study was a critical discourse analysis (CDA) of the LRE clause. …

Res Ipsa Non Loquitur: The Writing Of Opinions, Harold H. Kolb Jr.

Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary

No abstract provided.

Professional Writing Methodology , Patrick R. Hugg

Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary

Characterizing attorneys as professional writers, in the literary sense, who just happen to work in the legal milieu, this article discusses the author’s principles of “Professional Writing Methodology.”

Academic Resilience: Narratives Of High-Achieving Black Female Middle School Adolescents, Courtne Thomas

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine the academic experiences of four grade 6, high-achieving Black females in an urban middle school. Using the interpretive lenses of Feminism, Critical Race Theory, Critical Race Feminism, Intersectionality and Identity Formation, roles and identities were explored with word choice and language analysis. Habits and factors contributing to the participants' success revealed their beliefs about academic achievement. Through the use of narrative inquiry, data were collected from semi-structured in-depth individual interviews, observations and researcher field notes, personal autobiographical narratives, archival document reviews and artifacts. Findings of this study revealed that participants exhibited …