Digital Commons Network^™

Lifetime Lexical Variation In Social Media, Lizi Liao, Jing Jiang, Ying Ding, Heyan Huang, Ee Peng Lim

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

As the rapid growth of online social media attracts a large number of Internet users, the large volume of content generated by these users also provides us with an opportunity to study the lexical variation of people of different ages. In this paper, we present a latent variable model that jointly models the lexical content of tweets and Twitter users’ ages. Our model inherently assumes that a topic has not only a word distribution but also an age distribution. We propose a Gibbs-EM algorithm to perform inference on our model. Empirical evaluation shows that our model can learn meaningful age-specific …

Assessing Transit Fare Equity In Utah Using A Geographic Information System, Steven Farber, Keith Batholomew, Xiao Li, Antonio Paez, Khandker M. Nurul Habib

TREC Final Reports

The goal of this study is to develop and apply a new method for assessing social equity impacts of distance-based public transit fares. Shifting to a distance-based fare structure can disproportionately favor or penalize different subgroups of a population based on variations in settlement patterns, travel needs, and most importantly, transit use. According to federal law, such disparities must be evaluated by the transit agency, but the area-based techniques identified by the Federal Transit Authority for assessing discrimination fail to account for disparities in distances travelled by transit users. This means that transit agencies currently lack guidelines for assessing the …

Focal Point, Volume 28, Portland State University. Regional Research Institute

Research and Training Center - Focal Point

Between one–third and one–half of young adults with mental health challenges have co-occurring substance use issues. This issue of Focal Point examines treatments and supports for this population.

Analyzing Navajo Discourse: Investigating Form And Function Of Intonational Units In Referential Discourse, Michele Kiser

Linguistics ETDs

Extensive research has been conducted on the Navajo verb complex (prefix morphology) and specific constructions (i.e. relative clause structure, subject-object-inversion), but to date the proposed establishment of a method to analyze actual discourse from a functional or usage based approach has not occurred. The goal of this study is twofold. The first is to establish a method to analyze spoken Navajo using the Intonation Units (IU) as a measure as it occurs in natural, uninterrupted speech, according to the parameters outlined by Chafe (1994), and show the influence of the morphological complexity of Navajo on the size of the IU. …

Is The Bible Fiction?, Stefan Goltzberg

Faith and Philosophy: Journal of the Society of Christian Philosophers

No abstract provided.

Using Sfbt In Hong Kong: Initiatives From Hong Kong Master Of Counselling Psychology Students And Implications For Cultural Contexts In Australia*, Ann Moir-Bussy

Journal of Solution Focused Practices

Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT) is a therapeutic approach which was devel­oped primarily based on Western culture, beliefs and ideals. Six Master of Counsel­ ling Psychology students in Hong Kong participated in a clinical practicum for one semester during which they had the opportunity to apply the principles of SFBT with Chinese clients. The paper commences with an overview of the development of SFBT and counseling in Hong Kong, followed by the cultural context consider­ actions. Three case examples, in addition to the learnings, cultural challenges and experiences from the student counsellors are provided. The implications for the use of SFBT …

Computer Vision Aided Lip Movement Correction To Improve English Pronunciation, Shuang Wei

Open Access Theses

This paper explored the possibility of improving the pronunciation of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners by correcting their mouth-lip movement through visual feedback methods. As an EFL learner, I noticed that while learning pronunciation, for some words, the mouth-lip movement (e.g., opening size and duration) will affect the final pronunciation. A prototype system was developed to compare the standard pronunciation mouth shape movement with a user's pronunciation mouth shape movement and give visual feedback to users. Using computer vision technology, the mouth shape movement of standard pronunciation is extracted into moving contours. The user's mouth movement is video …

Exploring Organizational Culture And Intercultural Communication Practices In A Teaching Hospital, Jaclyn R. Devine

Communication ETDs

As the population in the United States becomes more diverse, communities are increasingly experiencing disparities in health care quality that follow racial and ethnic lines. It has been documented that improving health care providers' intercultural communication is one way to help reduce these health disparities. This study investigated the intercultural communication practices of employees at a large teaching hospital in the Southwest that is actively working to reduce health disparities in its community. Recognizing the influence of organizational culture on communication in a workplace, this study looked not only at communication practices, but also at organizational culture and at diversity …

Mediated Narratives On Citizenship, Immigration, And National Identity: The Construction Of Dreamer Identities In Public Discourse Surrounding President Obama's 2012 Deferred Deportation Announcement, Marisa Garcia Rodriguez

Communication ETDs

In the present study, I explore mediated constructions of citizenship, immigrant identities, and national identity in the coverage of the debates that surrounded President Obama's 2012 deferred deportation announcement. My goals in this study are to understand (1) how citizenship is constructed in mediated discourse in response to President Obama's announcement; (2) how immigrant identities, specifically young undocumented immigrants (DREAMers), are constructed in mediated discourse; (3) how national identity is constructed through these mediated discourses; and, (4) how the representation of DREAMer identities reproduces or challenges dominant public discourses on citizenship, immigrant identity, and national identity. Using social constructionism and …

Identity Performance And Space In The Albuquerque Poetry Slam Scene, Edward Hakim Bellamy

Communication ETDs

Public spaces where culture is co-constructed and performed by a community of people are rich sites for research on identity formation. This thesis explores the poetry slam as a space where poets and audiences co-construct and perform individual and group identities. From a social constructionist approach to identity formation and through the theories and methods of performance studies, the research design combines participant observation, interviews, and focus groups to elucidate the values and performative acts that define the distinct identity of the local slam community in Albuquerque, NM. The analysis of data identifies five major themes (authenticity, affecting change, building …

The Social Construction And Broaden-Build Effects Of Appreciation, Recognition, And Reward At Work As Portrayed In Four Contemporary Films, Andrew Gavin Leach

Communication ETDs

Many employees feel underappreciated, unrecognized, and undervalued in todays corporate, white collar environment (Herman& Dasborough, 2008; Ariani, D. W. 2013). Global economic crises, rising housing prices and high unemployment have all contributed to the prevailing thought that it an employee should just be happy with having a job. However, many organizations have found that evoking positive emotion in the workplace is a win-win situation for them and their employees (Lutgen-Sandvik, Riforgiate & Fletcher, 2009). In order to investigate what is enacted to produce positivity in the workplace, this project applied content analysis to four commercial film dated 2004 to 2013. …

Beowulf: A Translation And Commentary, By J.R.R. Tolkien, Edited By Christopher Tolkien. Reviewed By Janet Bennan Croft., Janet Brennan Croft

Mythprint Book Reviews

Mythprint is the quarterly bulletin of the Mythopoeic Society, a nonprofit educational organization devoted to the study, discussion, and enjoyment of myth and fantasy literature, especially the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and Charles Williams. To promote these interests, the Society publishes three magazines, maintains a World Wide Web site, and sponsors the annual Mythopoeic Conference and awards for fiction and scholarship, as well as local discussion groups.

Lifetime Lexical Variation In Social Media, Lizi Liao, Jing Jiang, Ying Ding, Heyan Huang, Ee-Peng Lim

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

As the rapid growth of online social media attracts a large number of Internet users, the large volume of content generated by these users also provides us with an opportunity to study the lexical variation of people of different ages. In this paper, we present a latent variable model that jointly models the lexical content of tweets and Twitter users' ages. Our model inherently assumes that a topic has not only a word distribution but also an age distribution. We propose a Gibbs-EM algorithm to perform inference on our model. Empirical evaluation shows that our model can learn meaningful age-specific …

Following Lower-Court Precedent, Aaron-Andrew P. Bruhl

Faculty Publications

This Article examines the role of lower-court precedent in the US Supreme Court’s decisions. The Supreme Court is rarely the first court to consider a legal question, and therefore the Court has the opportunity to be informed by and perhaps even persuaded by the views of the various lower courts that have previously addressed the issue. This Article considers whether the Court should give weight to lower-court precedent as a matter of normative theory and whether the Court in fact does so as a matter of practice. To answer the normative question, this Article analyzes a variety of potential reasons …

Factors Related To High School Dropout Rates Among Native Hawaiian And Other Pacific Islander Youths In Salt Lake And Utah Counties In Utah, Afa K. Palu

Theses and Dissertations

Researchers across the globe have studied high school dropouts for decades and have identified various factors related to high school dropout rates. These factors have been found to be related to dropout rates among specific ethnic groups, including White, Asian, Black or African American, American Indian or Alaska Native, and Hispanic or Latino Origin high school students. However, the factors related to dropout rates among Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander high school students in the U.S. mainland have not been studied. This study was completed to better understand the factors related to dropout rates among Native Hawaiian or Other …

The Relationship Between Word Consciousness And Vocabulary Growth And Achievement In Fourth And Fifth Graders, Margaret M. Walsh

Dissertations

This study examined the relationship between word consciousness and vocabulary growth by analyzing the results from a local assessment, the Word Consciousness Assessment (WCA), as well as a standardized assessment, the Gates-MacGinitie Reading Tests. These data came from portions of a larger study, the Multifaceted Comprehensive Vocabulary Instructional Program for the Upper Elementary Grades, which relied on a formative design with no control group. The 142 fourth and fifth grade participants came from an elementary school located in the Midwest. Quantitative and qualitative analyses were conducted to determine whether an increase in word consciousness occurred, a relationship between outcomes on …

From Pastorals To Paterson: Ecology In The Poetry And Poetics Of William Carlos Williams, Daniel Edmund Burke

Dissertations (1934 -)

Modernist poet William Carlos Williams died in 1962 - a landmark year in the history of the modern environmentalist movement. He did not live to see contemporary culture come to the deeper appreciation of humanity's place in the world which we now know as ecology. This dissertation will argue, however, that supporting his entire oeuvre of poetry are philosophical and poetic underpinnings which resonate strongly with - and usefully anticipate - our modern understanding of the interpenetrative relationship between natural and culture, human and nonhuman. I begin by tracing the roots of Williams's "ecopoetics" back to the father of Williams's …

Missing The Point: The Real Impact Of Native Mascots And Team Names On American Indian And Alaska Native Youth, Victoria Phillips, Erik Stegman

Research Reports & White Papers

The debate over the racist name and mascot of the professional football team based in the nation’s capital, the “Redskins,” has reached a fever pitch in recent months. Fifty U.S. senators signed a letter urging the National Football League, or NFL, to take action and change the name. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office recently canceled several of the team’s trademarks because they were disparaging to American Indian and Alaska Native, or AI/AN, people and communities. And several media outlets across the country have stopped printing and using the name, including the San Francisco Chronicle, Slate, and The Seattle Times. …

The Margin Of Appreciation In International Investment Law, Julian Arato

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Russia's Contribution As A Partner In The War On Terrorism, Henry Plater-Zyberk Mr.

Books, Monographs & Collaborative Studies

View the Executive Summary

This monograph examines terrorism and counterterrorism from the Russian perspective so as to assess prospects for cooperation with Russia in fighting terror. It concludes that, regardless of the state of political relations between Russia and the United States at any given time, longer-term systemic and conceptual obstacles to meaningful cooperation may well prevent any significant Russian contribution to U.S. counterterrorism efforts. This monograph details Russian definitions of terrorism and then looks at the Russian security “pyramid,” which sets out the relevant authority structure. It examines the roles of coordinating bodies such as the Security Council and …

Product Of The Past: The Struggle Between The Lakota Sioux Nation And The United States Government, Brittany Lombardo

Pell Scholars and Senior Theses

Many may be familiar with the national landmark that is Mount Rushmore, located in South Dakota. The heroes represent the leaders of the United States, the founding fathers. However, it shadows a rich history that is what came before the United States' invasion. The Lakota Sioux roamed freely throughout the Midwest, that is until the the US began to expand westward. The rich history of the Lakota lingers throughout their lives today, but is suppressed under a thick lair of oppression and mistreatment by the United States Government.

Converlogical Management Theory: Towards The Development Of The Communicative Competence Of An Organization, Marife C. Posadas

DLSU Business & Economics Review

Management practice has been evolving from a very rigid and behavioristic practice into something more flexible and humanistic. Critical Management Studies (CMS) is, partly, inspiring such move. In the same vein, I attempted to combine and “mutually animate” Management by Objective (MBO) popularized by great management guru Peter Drucker and the Theory of Communicative Action (TCA) by Jurgen Habermas. The result of which is a novel management theory called “Converlogical” (Conversational/Dialogical) Management Theory. I used concept analysis and deductive approach on various materials to build the theory. The whole MBO process was animated by embedding the validity claims of Habermas’ …

The Language Of Evidence In Rape Trials, Saumya Maheshwari

Socio-Legal Review

Sexual assault laws have been amended on several occasions to make the criminal justice system more sensitive to the tribulations of the prosecutrix. However, the manner in which these reforms are implemented in the courtroom and the kind of language that is used by the advocates and judges are instrumental in achieving its objective. In this paper, the reforms mandating in camera trials for rape cases, and excluding past sexual history from evidence have been examined. It is argued that the language used inside the courtroom may serve to defeat the purpose of these reform measures. This argument is based …

Freedom To Be: Assessing The Claims Of Lgbtq Asylum Seekers, Douglas Mcdonald

Socio-Legal Review

In refugee status assessment, the process of proving the 'truth' of one's sexual orientation (and proving that one will be persecuted on account of this) is often infected by the cultural biases of individual decision-makers. Assessors may, for example, expect self-identifying homosexual or bisexual asylum seekers to act in a particular manner (conforming to Western assumptions about sexual behaviour or identity), or expect an unreasonable degree of detail and consistency with regard to asylum seekers' experiences in their countries of origin. Alternately, assessors may conflate various forms of sexual identity (such as homosexuality and transgender status, or different forms of …

Bringing Literacy Home: Latino Families Supporting Children's Literacy Learning, Stephanie Wessels, Guy Trainin

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

DUAL LANGUAGE LEARNERS (DLLS) are part of the educational landscape across the United States. Public school enrollment of dual language learners increased by 51 percent from 1997 to 2008 (NCELA 2011). At the same time, students who are DLLs meet the same academic standards as English-only students after an adjustment period (Goldenberg 2008). The challenge for our schools and communities is educating all students while helping DLLs close the gap in language and cultural understanding so they can succeed in the American educational system. Research suggests that working to close the achievement gap during regular school hours only is not …

An Originalist Argument For A Sixth Amendment Right To Competent Counsel, Erica J. Hashimoto

Scholarly Works

The Treason Act of 1696 provided a right to counsel in treason cases in England and laid the framework for the right to counsel both in England and in the United States. Evidence suggests that the Treason Act may have influenced the Framers of the Constitution; thus, any historical understanding of the Sixth Amendment right to counsel should consider the quality of representation treason defendants received. If, as appears to be the case, treason defendants had competent, experienced lawyers representing them, then the Sixth Amendment right to counsel may well include that right to such representation. This Essay suggest that …

Investigating Teachers’ Self-Reported Efficacy In Instructing Culturally And Linguistically Diverse Learners In Alternative Settings, Liane Kay Lancaster

Masters Theses

Teachers in alternative schools have limited to no knowledge of issues influencing students who are culturally and linguistically different. Current educational research lacks an in-depth examination of teachers’ perceptions of their use of culturally relevant practices with this group.

Using an adaptation of Siwatu’s (2007) Culturally Responsive Teaching Self-Efficacy Scale and drawing upon the theories of constructivism and multiculturalism, this study documents the perceptions of teachers’ preparedness in an alternative high school in the Midwest. The investigator collected information that may assist teachers and teacher preparation institutions in delivering instruction that better suits students who are culturally and linguistically diverse. …

The Effect Of Explicit And Implicit Instruction And Native Language Exposure For Advanced L2 Learners In Chinese Pragmatics: Apologies, Yu-Fang Liao

Theses and Dissertations

Pragmatics is part of communicative competence. In order to communicate successfully, pragmatic competence is of vital importance. Although pragmatics has played a significant role in L2 learners' communicative competence, pragmatics still has not been commonly taught in the classroom. The present research investigates the efficacy of instruction in pragmatics in the advanced Chinese language class has on the production and appropriate use of apology strategies, and examines the correlation between exposure in a Chinese Speaking Community (CSC) and pragmatics development. The subjects include 55 students in their third-year of college-level Chinese, divided into four classes at Brigham Young University. The …

Paisajes Del Exilio En La Poesía De Juan Balboa Boneke: Compromiso Social Con La Patria Guineoecuatoriana, Dosinda Garcìa-Alvite

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Survey Instruments Used To Evaluate Foundation-Funded Nonprofit Capacity- Building Programs: Considerations For Organized Philanthropy, Catherine H. Brown

The Foundation Review

· Alongside a growing interest in nonprofit capacitybuilding programs has come a growing concern with the impact of these programs, especially by organizations that fund them. This article describes how the McKinsey Organizational Capacity and Assessment Tool and, to a lesser extent, the Abt Associates survey have been used to assess changes in nonprofit capacity as part of nonprofit capacity-building programs.

· Drawing on field experience with both survey instruments in the context of a foundationfunded nonprofit capacity-building program, this article compares the respective benefits and costs of these instruments from the perspective of evaluators as well as survey respondents. …