Digital Commons Network^™

Bystanders And Bullying: A Reflective Examination Of College Students' Experiences, Katherine Marie Larsen

Honors Theses

This study examines the individual responses of bystanders to bullying based on situational and personal variables. Using self-report data collected on 935 university students, these variables were used to determine if there was a relationship between the variables and the decision to intervene in a bullying situation for a friend. The results suggested that race, sexual orientation, and direct forms of bullying (physical and cyber bullying) have a relationship between an individual’s choice to intervene in a bullying situation for a friend. The findings failed to support the hypothesis that personal factors such as gender, socio-economic status, and a history …

America's Closet Door: An Investigation Of Television And Its Effects On Perceptions Of Homosexuality, Sara Moroni

Honors Theses

This study investigates the relationship between television and social perceptions. It uses the television shows Will&Grace, The L Word, Queer as Folk, and Modern Family for rhetorical analysis. Then, it uses the information gained from the analysis to hypothesize how and why these television shows both reflect and affect social perceptions of homosexuality.

Effects Of A Nutrition Education Intervention On Inner City Children, Stephanie P. Windle

Honors Theses

This paper focuses on nutrition education research conducted between February and April 2014. The researcher’s goal was to determine the effectiveness of a nutrition education intervention on low-income children. The USDA and Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics provided most of the research used to create the intervention. The definition of “healthy” used for this study was defined by the USDA (2014) as “whole foods such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, fat free or low-fat dairy, and lean meats that are perishable (fresh, refrigerated, or frozen) or canned as well as nutrient-dense foods and beverages encouraged by the 2010 Dietary Guidelines …

The Eu's Cookie Cutter, But Not The Eu's Cookie, Sylvia Zdunek

Honors Theses

The members of the European Union have never had a common identity that has united them together beyond their geographical definition of "Europe." Since the beginning of the European Union and the introduction of the Euro, the decision makers of the Union have been pushing for a collective European identity. The need for this identity comes from the belief that in order for the Union to be economically sound, it needs an underlying homogenous culture. A unity in identity, values, and ideals is stronger than a unity based solely on a common currency as it lacks personal characteristics that people …

"I Wasn't Born A Boy – I Was Born A Baby": Best Practices Versus Accepted Practices In News Coverage Of The Transgender Community, Anna Hornell

Journalism

As transgender people and issues have gained prominence in American media over the past few years, more and more journalists find themselves covering a small and marginalized community that they may not have any previous experience with. Using standards set by LGBT media watchdog GLAAD, this study aimed to examine how the prevalence of problematic journalistic practices in covering the transgender community has (or has not) changed in recent years. A content analysis of 1,019 U.S. newspaper articles from 2009 and 2014 revealed some significant changes: almost all GLAAD-identified problematic practices that were studied appeared less commonly in 2014, although …

Shock Incarceration Programs Creative Problem Solving, Djuana L. Munn

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

Abstract of Project

Shock Incarceration Programs Creative Problem Solving

Many women who are incarcerated inside correctional boot camp prisons might have substantial low self-esteem that could worsen due to the stress of the prison environment, confinement, and being far away from their children and family members. Shock Incarceration or “boot camp” male correctional programs are degrading for female inmates: They do not meet the special needs and problems of women. Programs are based on control theory, which implies that an individual’s behavior assimilates to that which is expected by society. Female inmates are taught discipline and responsibility by “breaking down …

Assessing Pragmatic Language In Autism Spectrum Disorder: The Yale In Vivo Pragmatic Protocol, Elizabeth Schoen Simmons, Rhea Paul, Fred Volkmar

Communication Disorders Faculty Publications

Purpose: This study compared pragmatic language in youths (9–17 years) with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and those with typical development (TD) on the Yale in vivo Pragmatic Protocol (YiPP), a semistructured, dynamic conversational assessment. Method: Participants (n = 118) were divided into groups based on age and diagnosis. Each completed the YiPP, which included 4 pragmatic domains (discourse management, communicative functions, conversational repair, presupposition). The participant’s response to each probe was scored correct or incorrect; incorrect scores elicited cues from the examiner, and level of cue required for a correction was also scored. Results: The YiPP showed high reliability and …

The Use Of Variable-Bagging And The Cross-Validation Selector In The Prediction Of Alzheimer’S Using The Adni Database., Michael Wayne Godbey

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Dimensionality plays a huge part in the modeling process. If there are more elements in a data set than variables in each element then there are very few restrictions in selection of an algorithm. Bagging, bootstrap aggregating (Breiman, 1994), may also be used to improve a model’s prediction capability. On the other hand, if there more variables in each observation than the number of observations in the dataset, the number of usable algorithms is greatly reduced. The recently developed algorithm, support vector machines, was designed for such situations, in comparison to algorithms such as logistic regression which have instability issues …

Competitive Evaluation Of Data Mining Algorithms For Use In Cassification Of Leukocyte Subtypes With Raman Microspectroscopy, Adrian Maguire, I. Vega-Carrascal, Jane Bryant, Lisa White, Orla Howe, Fiona Lyng, Aidan Meade

Articles

Raman microspectroscopy has been investigated for some time for use in label-free cell sorting devices. These approaches require coupling of the Raman spectrometer to complex data mining algorithms for identification of cellular subtypes such as the leukocyte subpopulations of lymphocytes and monocytes. In this study, three distinct multivariate classification approaches, (PCA-LDA, SVMs and Random Forests) are developed and tested on their ability to classify the cellular subtype in extracted peripheral blood mononuclear cells (T-cell lymphocytes from myeloid cells), and are evaluated in terms of their respective classification performance. A strategy for optimisation of each of the classification algorithm is presented …

The Formation Of A Sacred Political Site : The Birthplace Of Mao Zedong At Shaoshan, Zhe Dong 1988-

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Between 1949 and 1966, Mao Zedong’s cult of personality swelled into a kind of secular religion in China, and his birthplace, the remote village of Shaoshan, became a sacred site and s signal representative of national commemorative culture. This study rediscovers Shaoshan’s memorial projects undertaken during this period and explores how they embody the complex interplay between art/architecture and politics and the artistic tensions between rural and urban settings in post-Revolutionary China. The text focuses on four endeavors: the historic preservation of Mao’s Old House; the urban renovation plans advanced during the Great Leap Forward; the Exhibition Pavilion constructed by …

Prompting Discussion : Writing Prompts, Habits Of Mind, And The Shape Of The Writing Classroom., William Matthew Wiles

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Much of the important writing students will be tasked with in their college careers calls upon them to approximate the writing styles academics and professionals use to shape and advance their respective fields. Many disciplinary values are encoded within the such texts. Learning these styles can be difficult for students who lack the experience and ingrained habits that their instructors may take for granted. In most cases, college writers are outsiders peeking in from the outskirts of academic and professional discourse. Also, the “Expert Blind Spot” (Ambrose et. al) can make college instructors oblivious to the nuances of the writing …

Pedagogy : Reconsiderations And Reorientations., John Vance

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is a critical intervention into the question of student agency. An interdisciplinary project that draws upon philosophy and linguistics, it reviews four major tendencies that have animated composition pedagogy over the last several decades— process theory, social-constructivism, procedural rhetoric, and trans-lingual pedagogies— and identifies some of the key tensions that both motivate and problematize these approaches. First, it examines the debate between Peter Elbow and David Bartholomae, and the interplay between teachers’ authority and student agency. Second, it explores the imbrications between representation and materiality in social constructivism. Third, it uses Alain Badiou’s Being and Event to analyze …

The Impact Of Inflammatory And Immune Response-Related Genetic Variants On Prostate Cancer Risk Among Men Of African Descent., Dominique Zilpha Jones

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Background: In the U.S., prostate cancer (PCA) metastasis is associated with a 5-yr survival rate of 29% and disproportionately affects men of African descent. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) may serve as genetic markers to identify individuals at high risk of developing PCA. Methods: We examined main and joint effects of 119 inflammatory and immune response-associated SNPs among men of African descent (535 controls, 279 cases) via logistic regression (LR) and entropy-based-multi-factor dimensionality reduction (MDR) modeling. Results: MDR yielded highly synergistic [(TLR10, TLR6 and IRF3), (TLR2, IRAK4), (IL1R2, IL10, IL10RA)] interaction …

The Effect Of Infrastructure Changes On Railway Operations., Martin J.R. Schmidt 1966-

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This paper makes use of standard simulation programs in combination with the tools of applied statistics to simulate railway operations. The purpose of the use of this tool is to evaluate and compare different possible kinds of railway infrastructure, like different types of signaling procedures, different network configuration or operational procedures. A railway system is a logistic network and because of the demand for improved railway operation, much work has been undertaken lately in this scientific field. However the author postulates the hypothesis based on a literature review that in a lot of these works there is a lack of …

Against The Grain : The Challenges Of Black Discourse Within Intercollegiate Policy Debate., Tiffany Yvonne Dillard-Knox

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research uses the speech community model of analysis to illustrate how language is used to determine inclusion into and exclusion from Debate. This has been done by examining the use of four Black discourse types in Intercollegiate Policy Debate: signifying, call and response, tonal semantics, and narrative sequencing to show the ways in which current debate practices (un)intentionally exclude Blacks. Upon examination, one can see that there is educational value to the methods used by majority of the Black student population within Debate. In addition to being a tool of empowerment for this student population, these students can also …

Modulation Of T Lymphocytes By Tumor-Released Survivin, Jessica Marie Jutzy

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

The tumor microenvironment is an area of intense interaction between normal and malignant cells. Factors and cell types within this environment can play a crucial role in the progression or regression of the tumor. Of primary interest are tumor-infiltrating T lymphocytes, which have been shown to have a key role in modifying the dynamics of the tumor microenvironment to promote or prevent tumor growth. While there is much in vitro and in vivo evidence for a modification of the tumor infiltrating T cell population toward a pro-tumor environment, what induces these changes within the tumor microenvironment has remained elusive. Our …

Risk Factors For Substance Use In The American Indian/Alaska Native Community, Kelli Lewis Rugless

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Research has indicated that substance use is a significant problem in the American Indian/Alaska Native adolescent community. What is less understood are the risk and protective factors specific to this community. Using data available from the Communities That Care Youth Survey, we analyzed risk and protective factors for current (30-day) and lifetime use of smokeless tobacco, cigarettes, alcohol, marijuana, and alcohol in a sample of 5,912 AI/AN adolescents. Logistic regression analyses were used and our findings indicated that peer and family influences, as well as ease of access to alcohol and other drugs had the greatest overall impact on AI/AN …

In Vivo Dosimetry Using Plastic Scintillation Detectors For External Beam Radiation Therapy, Landon S. Wootton

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

In vivo dosimetry, the direct measurement of dose delivered to patients during radiation therapy, has significant potential in ensuring safe and effective treatment in radiation therapy. It can serve as point-of-delivery, patient specific quality assurance and direct verification of treatment. Despite evidence that in vivo dosimetry can detect errors in patient treatment that would otherwise go undetected, it is not commonly practiced. This is due in part to a lack of available detectors ideally suited to perform in vivo dosimetry. Plastic scintillation detectors (PSDs) possess a number of dosimetric characteristics advantageous for in vivo dosimetry including water equivalence, real-time capability, …

Religion, Conscience, And The Case For Accommodation, William A. Galston

San Diego Law Review

I do not believe that religion is an obsolete constitutional category. But I do believe that the holdings in United States v. Seeger and Welsh v. United States, the Vietnam-era draft cases that extended conscientious objector status to individuals invoking nonreligious claims, were correct. Can I consistently embrace both propositions? I think I can. My argument, in brief, is that religion is indeed special. But when we understand what it is about religion that warrants both distinctive privileges and distinctive burdens, we will see that some other systems of belief track these features of religion closely enough to warrant comparable …

Reconciliation Ecology: A New Paradigm For Advancing Creation Care, Dave P. Warners, Michael Ryskamp, Randall Van Dragt

University Faculty Publications and Creative Works

Current global environmental challenges—species loss, overconsumption, climate change, and others—have not been countered in the faith community with a response worthy of their signifi cance. While the prevailing faith-based creation-care paradigm, environmental stewardship, has been invaluable in moving us beyond the utilitarian notion of “dominion,” the stewardship concept does not suffi ciently emphasize our embedded, dependent relationship with the creation. To better represent our creationcare responsibilities, we propose a new paradigm based on a model of servanthood and informed by the concept of reconciliation ecology, which focuses on mending broken relationships between human beings and nonhuman creation. Drawing from the …

The Social Effect The Law Had On Prostitutes In Ancient Rome, Lauren Weisner

Grand Valley Journal of History

Prostitution was popular and common in Ancient Rome. Although Ancient Romans frequented brothels, early laws put into place by the Republic treated prostitutes as lowly individuals which caused the people of Rome to view them negatively. Eventually, the Republic changed the laws and consequently the views on prostitutes. Later laws essentially legitimized prostitution by allowing them to avoid fines for illicit sexual activities and eventually placed a tax on prostitution much like that on the regular businesses of the time. These shifts in the way prostitutes were treated legally allowed for a large shift in public perception of them as …

Pediatric Emergency Medical Care In Yerevan, Armenia: A Knowledge And Attitudes Survey Of Out-Of-Hospital Emergency Physicians., Aline A. Baghdassarian, Ross I. Donaldson, Andrew D Depiero, Nancy L Chernett, Harsh P. Sule Md

Department of Emergency Medicine Faculty Papers

BACKGROUND: Out-of-hospital emergency care is at an early stage of development in Armenia, with the current emergency medical services (EMS) system having emergency physicians (EPs) work on ambulances along with nurses. While efforts are underway by the Ministry of Health and other organizations to reform the EMS system, little data exists on the status of pediatric emergency care (PEC) in the country. We designed this study to evaluate the knowledge and attitudes of out-of-hospital emergency physicians in pediatric rapid assessment and resuscitation, and identify areas for PEC improvement.

METHODS: We distributed an anonymous, self-administered Knowledge and Attitudes survey to a …

Benthic Macroinvertebrates In Uvas Creek, California, Downstream Of A Reservoir, Carole Ann Foster

Master's Theses

I sampled macroinvertebrates in May, July, and October 2008 in Uvas Creek, a reservoir-regulated stream in south Santa Clara County, California, to assess what factors (including canopy closure, turbidity, and stream flow) downstream of the reservoir were related to food availability for rearing juvenile Steelhead (Oncorhynchus mykiss). I found benthic and drifting macroinvertebrate biomass was considerably greater during most months in the more open-canopied two sites in the downstream reach as compared to the densely shaded, more turbid and silty two sites in the upstream reach. Abundance of important drifting aquatic invertebrates in May (chironomids, simuliids, and baetids) was proportional …

Nowhere: A Kinetic Typography Motion Graphic About The Pursuit Of Happiness, I-Cheng Lee

Theses

nowhere is a motion graphic project that expresses my personal journey of pursuing happiness. To be happy or not happy, people have the choices of their own lives and thoughts. This project shows that positive thinking could lead to better lives through my example.

A short poetic script on how I realized happiness in my life will be expressed in this project through visuals and composition. Every stylized sentence has a particular connection with the inspiring visuals and transitions. The intent of the piece is to install the viewer with the power of positive thinking by reading the poem with …

Mookkoori, Myungsuk Kim

Theses

Mookkoori is a 20-minute narrative film written and directed by Myungsuk Kim. The film was completed and shown in May 2014 at the RIT School of Film and Animation's Spring Screenings. The film's main character is Bora, who is the teenage daughter of a shaman in Korea. She is betrayed by Sunhee, her only friend in high school and she is being bullied and threatened by a gang. Bora's mother, who reveals herself to be quack shaman, blames Bora for getting involved in fighting. Fearing for her future, Bora reads her fortune at a shrine and sees three different ways …

X, Xiaoyu Liu

Theses

"X" is an animated graduate thesis film. The entire animation including credits was 5 minutes 36 seconds long by the time of my thesis screening at SOFA, RIT. The story was initially developed to express the emotional side of robots (or intelligent machines) and finally was changed with a new idea to put the emotional elements into the robot program itself. The story takes place in a robot factory and the main character is a newly produced robot named "X-100". X-100, as the 100th robot product, is facing a crucial test determining his eligibility for being a qualified product. All …

Proof-To-Print Match: Effectiveness Of Substrate-Corrected Colorimetric Aims In Soft Proofing, Peng Cheng

Theses

Soft proofing is an effective solution for clients and printers that decreases production cost and cycle time. However, print buyers are increasingly specifying brighter papers, which contain optical brightening agents (OBAs). One potential concern facing adopters of soft proofing systems is that they fail to consider the influence of OBA when rendering color images. Proofing systems are largely based on existing published specifications and their ICC profiles. These specifications and ICC profiles -- such as SWOP 3 and GRACoL 2006-- do not account for the influence of OBA-loaded printing papers, and therefore could cause a mismatch between the soft proof …

Forword: A Study On An Interactive Learning Environment In Foreign Language, Christina A. Curtis

Theses

With constant advances in technology, the world becomes a smaller community each day. In line with its reputation as a cultural melting pot, children of immigrants are the fastest growing student population in the United States today. It's clear that the U.S. needs a strong approach in language education; one that can keep pace with our potential and our lives. Technology can be used to foster student collaboration and shared learning experiences, thereby increasing learner interest, motivation and learning outcomes. ForWord aims to use interaction design in foreign language education to meet this need. ForWord has four main goals: provide …

Using Motion For Educational Information Design Max’S Story: Teenagers With Type1 Diabetes, Wenyu Ouyang

Theses

Today, some younger people are suffering from chronic illnesses, such as diabetes, leukemia, and depressive disorder, which are some of the most significant concerns in the world. In spite of advancements made by modern science and technology, some chronic illnesses still last a lifetime, such as Type 1 Diabetes, known as T1D. In this situation, positive attitudes and correct understanding of the disease is extremely important in educating children how to manage their condition.

There are some excellent educational materials with a large quantity of text, which are good for parents to read. At the same time, there are picture …

Drowsy Cache Partitioning For Multithreaded Systems And High Level Caches, Samantha Rose Kenyon

Theses

Power consumption is becoming an increasingly important component of processor design. As technology shrinks both static and dynamic power become more relevant. This is particularly important for the cache hierarchy. The cache portion of a microprocessor contains a large percentage of the total number of transistors in the microprocessor. Therefore the cache consumes a large percentage of both static and dynamic power. When improving power consumption in the past, there has always been a large trade-off between energy savings and performance.

Techniques that reduce power consumption typically have a negative impact on performance. Likewise, when performance is improved it is …