Digital Commons Network^™

Searching As Thinking: The Role Of Cues In Query Reformulation, Veronica Maidel

Dissertations - ALL

Given the growing volume of information that surrounds us, search, and particularly web search, is now a fundamental part of how people perceive and experience the world. Understanding how searchers interact with search engines is thus an important topic both for designers of information retrieval systems and educators working in the area of digital literacy. Reaching such understanding, however, with the more established, system-centric, approaches in information retrieval (IR) is limited. While inherently iterative nature of the search process is generally acknowledged in the field of IR, research on query reformulation is typically limited to dealing with the "what" or …

Starved For Information: The Conflict Between Mobilizing Hunger Strikes And Distracting Media Frames, Alicia Wright

Theses - ALL

This study considers the newspaper coverage of Irom Sharmila's on-going, 13-year hunger strike in India to question how information from the media plays a role in generation of social movement conflict. With specific attention paid to the cultural context and method of protest, the study applies theories of conflict, social movement planning, and framing to examine whether the hunger strike elicits coverage that includes salient frames generated by the movement. Such coverage could signify a potential shift in the protest paradigm applied to English-language newspapers in India. Through a quantitative content analysis, articles pertaining to Irom Sharmila's hunger strike against …

20 Weeks, 13 Hours, 140 Characters: The Abortion Controversy In The Texas State Senate And Online, Elyse Nicole Janish

Theses - ALL

The abortion controversy in America has long been characterized by problematic discourse in which neither prolife nor prochoice groups make headway in persuading the other side. This thesis examines the discourse of the abortion controversy as it played out in and around the Texas State Senate on June 25th, 2013, during a filibuster of a restrictive abortion bill known as Senate Bill 5 (SB5), by Senator Wendy Davis (D-Fort Worth). The analysis focuses on three sets of data: first, the testimonies authored by citizen protestors and animated by Senator Davis; second, the question-and-answer period between Senator Davis and Republican Senator …

Describing Students' Talk About Physical Science Phenomena Outside And Inside The Classroom: A Case Of Secondary School Students From Maragoli, Western Region Of Kenya, Grace Nyandiwa Orado

Dissertations - ALL

Because of cultural and linguistic influences on science learning involving students from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds, calls have been made for teachers to enact teaching that is sensitive to these students' backgrounds. However, most of the research involving such students has tended to focus on students at elementary grade levels from predominantly two linguistic backgrounds, Hispanic and Haitian Creole, learning science concepts mainly in the life sciences. Also, most of the studies examined classroom interactions between teachers and the students and among students. Not much attention had been paid to how students talk about ideas inherent in scientific phenomena …

Aspiring Literacy Specialists' (Un)Certainty: A Critical Discourse Analysis, Elizabeth Years Stevens

Dissertations - ALL

The purpose of this study was to explore the identities and discourses of 10 students who were completing their Literacy Education MS studies to gain certification as literacy specialists. More specifically, it asked: 1) What do beginning literacy specialists' discourses reveal about their evolving identities? 2) On what discourses do they draw? 3) How are situational, institutional, and societal contexts implicated?

A sociocultural view that context, history, culture, discourse, power, and ideologies influence literacy, instruction, and teacher identity grounded this study. The analysis drew on Gee's (2000) notions of identity and discourse. It used critical discourse analysis to consider the …

Pageant Moms: Mothers' Accounts Of Their Participation In Child Beauty Pageants, Darla Clare Smith

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

Using the voices of nine mothers whose daughters participate in child beauty pageants, I analyzed these mothers' accounts of their participation in an activity widely viewed as deviant using neutralization theory. In this most recent wave of media attention towards child beauty pageants the focus has shifted away from the mothers and toward the pageant industry. By focusing on the mothers' accounts of their participation in child beauty pageants this study shows the ways in which these women think about and justify their participation. Their accounts demonstrated that while these mothers recognized that child beauty pageants are seen as deviant, …

Identifying Tf Target Genes Using Natural Language Processing And Literature Based Discovery Approach, Sk Md Nahid Hasan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

Recent developments in high-throughput genomic technologies allow researchers to investigate gene expression levels and genetic variation associated with phenotypes and outcomes. However, understanding the mechanisms responsible for regulation of gene expression and identification of critical components in the regulatory pathways responsible for phenotypes and diseases remain challenging. This thesis proposes a novel method to identify genes which are likely to be regulated by a given transcription factor (TF) based on functional information extracted from the biomedical literature. Existing methods for finding potential targets of a transcription factor utilize laboratory approaches such as Chromatin Immunoprecipitation (ChIP). By mining the literature, we …

Exploring Factors Associated With Wireless Internet Via Mobile Technology Acceptance In Mainland China, June Lu, Chang Lu, Chun-Sheng Yu, James E. Yao

Communications of the IIMA

This study explores factors significantly impact the acceptance of Wireless Internet via Mobile Technology (WIMT) in China. The results indicate that the acceptance of WIMT is related with factors of: perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, social influences, wireless trust environment, and facilitating conditions. It provides diagnostic insight into how different factors influence user intention to accept WIMT in China, and thus help business build solid strategy to prompt WIMT and m-commerce there.

Social Determinants Of Late Presentation To Hiv Care, Connie Leeper, Michael Mugavero, James Willig, Eric Chamot, Shatomi Kerbawy, Anne Zinski

Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice

Background: In recent years, increased attention has shifted toward evaluating social determinants of health, and understanding how community, environment, and system factors affect health outcomes. HIV policies and guidelines emphasize the importance of earlier HIV diagnosis and presentation for care. This study evaluated the role of individual and community-level factors in late presentation to HIV care.

Methods: HIV-infected patients newly initiating outpatient HIV medical care at an academic medical center between 2005-2010 were included. Patients' self-reported addresses at their first clinic visit were geocoded using geographic information systems software to the appropriate United States census block group. Using …

Visualizing Instant Messaging Author Writeprints For Forensic Analysis, Angela Orebaugh, Jason Kinser, Jeremy Allnutt

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

As cybercrime continues to increase, new cyber forensics techniques are needed to combat the constant challenge of Internet anonymity. In instant messaging (IM) communications, criminals use virtual identities to hide their true identity, which hinders social accountability and facilitates cybercrime. Current instant messaging products are not addressing the anonymity and ease of impersonation over instant messaging. It is necessary to have IM cyber forensics techniques to assist in identifying cyber criminals as part of the criminal investigation. Instant messaging behavioral biometrics include online writing habits, which may be used to create an author writeprint to assist in identifying an author …

The Observer, Central Washington University

Student Newspaper

Student newspaper for Central Washington University for May 29-June 4, 2014. Vol. 97, No. 8.

Maleeldil And Mutual Society: A Modern Woman's Defense Of Jane Studdock, Crystal Hurd

Inklings Forever: Published Colloquium Proceedings 1997-2016

Over the past few decades, many scholars and casual readers have derided C.S. Lewis as a misogynist for the "expulsion" of Susan from Aslan's Country. However, closer examinations of Lewis's underlying philosophy and previous experiences with women lend us exceptional insight into his changing perspective as well as his portrayal of feminine characters. Written before his wildly popular The Chronicles of Narnia, Lewis's science fiction or Ransom trilogy provides a glimpse into his developing talents as a fiction writer but also provides crucial commentary on the gender issues plaguing the twentieth century. This paper will investigate, through his correspondence, …

Lisa Tetzner's Translation Of C.S. Lewis's The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe, Betsy Susan Morgan

Inklings Forever: Published Colloquium Proceedings 1997-2016

According to UNESCO's website, Index Translationum, C.S. Lewis's The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe has been translated 127 times. The first person to translate the novel was Lisa Tetzner and it is this translation, which has run through the most editions. This paper proposes to look at that translation in terms of accuracy and to examine the changes that were made in terms of purpose. Were they caused by differences between the languages or were they motivated by other concerns? This paper will be an abridgment of a master's thesis written for the Children's Literature program at Hollins University.

The Good Catastrophe: Tolkien On The Consolation Of The Happy Ending, John Stanifer

Inklings Forever: Published Colloquium Proceedings 1997-2016

When describing the nature of fairy-stories, Tolkien famously coined the term "eucatastrophe" ("eu meaning "good") to express the effect of the "sudden joyous turn" that leads to the story's happy ending regardless of the dark events preceding it. Tolkien applies that word specifically to fairy-stories, but I would like to explore its meaning in relation to other genres and mediums that Tolkien was either unable or unwilling to consider. Classic literature and modern popular culture alike are ripe with the use of the "good" catastrophe, and this device is well-known by cultures from all parts of the globe. If it …

2014 Printed Program

Colloquium Schedules

No abstract provided.

Investigating India: A Strategic Recruitment Plan For Indian Students, Alana Stuart

Capstone Collection

This paper outlines the strategic recruitment plan for Indian undergraduate students designed for the Michigan State University (MSU) Office of Admissions. The title “INVESTigating India” refers not only to the finances that are necessary to fund the strategic recruitment plan, but also to the investment of time and human capital that must be devoted to the strategic recruitment plan in order to succeed. Furthermore, INVESTigating India utilizes deliberate methods to investigate the various reasonings behind Indian student mobility to the United States, while looking at both internal and external environmental factors at the micro (institutional) and macro (country) levels that …

Practice-Based Learning: Opportunities And Implications For Stem Education, Glen P. Mays

Health Management and Policy Presentations

This presentation examines how practice-based research strategies have been used to produce new knowledge and stimulate learning about how to improve the organization, financing, and delivery of public health services. I consider how practice-based research strategies can be adapted to advance knowledge and practice related to science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education and application.

Measuring The Adaptation Of Military Response During The Second Seminole War Florida (1835-1842): Kocoa And The Role Of A West Point Military Academy Education, Michelle Diane Sivilich

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Conflict archaeology is a fairly new discipline and is in the process of defining its methods and theories. Recently, the American Battlefield Protection Program has started requiring that grant applicants perform a KOCOA analysis. KOCOA is a modern military technique and stands for Key terrain, Obstacle, Cover and Concealment, Observation, and Avenues of Approach. However, this method was developed for modern warfare, and its adoption by the archaeological community has not yet been analyzed. I argue that this method needs a few modifications to make it more applicable to historical research and that it can be broadened to investigate more …

L2 Spanish Speakers' Attitudes Toward Selected Features Of Peninsular And Mexican Spanish, Grant Perry Stotts

Theses and Dissertations

Many studies have been done on language attitudes, including attitudes toward languages in contact, various dialects of a language, nonnative speech, and attitudes of second-language (L2) learners toward the language that they are learning. Typically the studies of second-language learning deal with the attitudes toward the language in general rather than toward specific varieties within the language. The present study measures the attitudes of L2 learners of Spanish who lived in Spain, Mexico and Argentina toward native speakers from Spain and Mexico. The nonnative speakers listened to recordings of four native speakers, a male and a female from Spain, and …

Privacy, Restriction, And Access: Legal And Ethical Dilemmas, Camila Z. Tessler

School of Information Student Research Journal

This paper examines the intersection of privacy and access in archival repositories. Archival repositories are well known for containing restricted material, and for protecting the privacy of the donors. This literature review examines the need for restricted material from both legal and ethical standpoints, as well as discussing culturally sensitive materials while determining what archives and libraries can do to protect both themselves and their donors while enhancing accessibility and freedom of information.

Professors Get Help In Business French From Paris Chamber French Embassy, Ohio University College Of Arts & Sciences

All Forum Articles

No abstract provided.

Yes Means はい, Oui, Sí: Cross Culturally Competent Sexual Assault Prevention For International Education Programs, Tara Jorgensen

Capstone Collection

This Course Linked Capstone (CLC) proposes a new orientation model for harassment and sexual assault prevention on International Education Programs. The program is based on significant recent research representing a paradigm shift in how to understand and effectively address sexual violence, which is taught to the students, and practical skill training for risk mitigation. Both active programming elements are additionally assessed through the lens of intercultural communication theories to ensure their value in intercultural interactions. The three pillars of this programming are Enthusiastic Consent for consensual relationships; Bystander Intervention within the group to mitigate and prevent students from becoming a …

Mediating Academic Success: Race, Class, Gender And Community College Persistence, Schaylee Marie Esparza

Dissertations and Theses

Over the last forty years, the U.S. community college system has expanded, allowing disadvantaged groups greater access to higher education. With that expansion, a body of research has emerged examining community college students' educational outcomes. However, the research is limited in understanding the academic persistence of low-income students and community college student in particular. The purpose of this comparative, qualitative study is to explore some of the unanswered questions about how low income white and Latino students' experience academic persistence similarly and differently and understand how gender influences the challenges students may face during college.

This study draws from interviews …

Islamic Feminism: A Discourse Of Gender Justice And Equality, Breanna Ribeiro

Senior Theses

This paper examines Islamic feminism using structural methodology and the phenomenological approach to examine the component of Muslim feminists' activism that utilizes ijtihad and tafsir to reinterpret patriarchal rhetoric and highlight Islamic discourses that validate gender equality. These scholars and activists critically analyze Islamic theology by employing hermeneutics in order to produce Islamic exegeses that affirm social justice, gender equality, and liberation. Religion plays a critical role in building collective cultural identities; therefore, examining sacred texts' representation and prescription of gender roles and mores generates an understanding of the gender order in the community of believers, while simultaneously exposing contextual …

Assessing Writing On The Job: Toward Development Of A Workplace Writing Curriculum, Betty J. Scull

Theses and Dissertations

In a nine-week online survey, the perceptions of 86 nonacademic workplace salaried employees concerning the kinds and frequencies of documents written, and the writing knowledge and skills needed to effectively perform writing tasks in their jobs, were studied. The primary objective was to determine if employees understood concepts of audience and audience analysis. The results suggest that the majority (64 percent) of participants are not familiar with audience or audience analysis concepts. In addition, most participants stressed the importance of Lower Order Concerns (LOCs) &mdash elements such as sentence structure, punctuation, word choice, and spelling &mdash over Higher Order Concerns …

Choice Of Official Text In Multilateral Treaties: The Interplay Of Law, Politics, Language, Pragmatism And (Multi)-Nationalism, John King Gamble, Lauren Kolb, Casey Graml

Santa Clara Journal of International Law

No abstract provided.

Chinese Biology Teaching Assistants' Perception Of Their English Proficiency: An Exploratory Case Study, Xuan Jiang

The Qualitative Report

Many Chinese graduate students are teaching assistants (TAs) in mathematics, science and engineering departments in the U.S. universities. TAs’ English proficiency has been a subject of concern or even criticism for years in the U.S. However, only one research has been found around international TAs’ English proficiency per discipline. No research has been found about Chinese TAs’ English proficiency. None has been done on Chinese TA’s perception of their English proficiency in biology. With this gap noticed, I deployed interviews to explore what the three biology TAs perceived as to their English proficiency. The study found that their perception was …

44th Chicano Commencement, 2014, San Jose State University, Associated Students

Chicano Commencement

44th Annual Chicano Commencement

"Edúcate para vivir. Vive para educar. = Learn to live. Live to learn." The 44th Annual Chicano Commencement was held at the SJSU Event Center on Sunday, May 25, 2014.

Deafdigest: Gold Edition, May 25, 2014, Barry Strassler

DeafDigest Gold 2014

No abstract provided.

Deafdigest: Blue Edition, May 25, 2014, Barry Strassler

DeafDigest Blue 2014

No abstract provided.