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Personal Reflections / 12.15.14, José M. Torres

Personal Reflections

We are nearing the completion of IMSA’s fall semester and, as the upcoming holidays approach and 2014 nears its end, I am moved to reflect on my accomplishments and share them with you.

Since I’m expanding the reach of my reflections to our students, parents and alumni I’d like to first welcome our newest readers—and also express my gratitude for everyone’s dedication and hard work. We’ve had a good year.

My previous Personal Reflections capture my thoughts from my first 90 days and after reading a recent email message exclaiming, “we can’t wait for day 91!,” I decided that on …

Gardner-Webb University Awards Over 250 Degrees, Office Of University Communications

Gardner-Webb NewsCenter Archive

Gardner–Webb University hosted Fall Commencement on Monday, Dec. 15 in the Lutz-Yelton Convocation Center at 10 a.m. More than 250 graduates were honored for their achievements during the ceremony. Many graduates participated in the ceremony through prayer, scripture reading, and commencement speeches.

The Male Scent Stresses Out Lab Rodents, Study Says, Staff

Browse All News

No abstract provided.

Um's Six Most Interesting Research Stories Of 2014, Edwin B. Smith

University of Mississippi News

From tortoises to teachers, scientific strides made national headlines

Scientizing Culpability: The Implications Of Hall V. Florida And The Possibility Of A “Scientific Stare Decisis”, Christopher Slobogin

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

The Supreme Court’s decision in Hall v. Florida held that “clinical definitions” control the meaning of intellectual disability in the death penalty context. In other words, Hall “scientized” the definition of a legal concept. This Article discusses the implications of this unprecedented move. It also introduces the idea of scientific stare decisis—a requirement that groups that are scientifically alike be treated similarly for culpability purposes—as a means of implementing the scientization process.

12-15-2014 Swosu Students Win Aauw Scholarships, Southwestern Oklahoma State University

THE BARK ARCHIVE 2014

Southwestern Oklahoma State University students Jackie Bivins of Beggs and Lori Webb of Sayre have been awarded scholarships from the American Association of University Women branch in Weatherford.

Exploring The Association Between Depression And Obesity Among Alzheimer's Patients, Stephanie Clugstone

Theses and Dissertations

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a neurological disorder that affects elderly individuals, and is becoming an increasing concern among the aging population of the world. Due to the projected increase in incidence of AD, modifiable risk factors such as depression and obesity should be evaluated, as prevention is the only current option. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of obesity and depression among AD patients, and to evaluate the association between depression and obesity. Patients were chosen from a subset of the South Carolina Alzheimer’s disease registry, which included information about weight status and depression, as well as several other …

Mathematics And Statistics Academic Program Review, 2014, College Of Science And Mathematics, Wright State University

Academic Program Review Reports - All

This 23 page report reviews several programs from Wright State University's Department of Mathematics and Statistics, specifically looking at the time from Fall 2009 to Fall 2014. Programs Reviewed: Applied Mathematics Mathematics (BA/BS, MS, and minor) Applied Statistics Statistics (BS and minor)

The Effect Of Attachment Type On Levels Of Delinquency And Peer Relations, Kayla Jordan

Honors Theses

The goal of this study is to determine if a relationship exists between the attachment type of an individual and that individual's level of delinquency and also their peer relations. This was done by having the participant take the Adult Attachment Scale to place them into their attachment type, followed by the Problem Behavior Frequency Scale to determine the participant's level of delinquency, and finally the Index of Peer Relations to assess the amount of problems the participant has with his or her peers. Sixty-one Coastal Carolina students participated in the study and the results show that those with a …

Hall V. Florida: The Supreme Court’S Guidance In Implementing Atkins, James W. Ellis

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

No abstract provided.

The Daryl Atkins Story, Mark E. Olive

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

No abstract provided.

Challenges Of Conveying Intellectual Disabilities To Judge And Jury, Caroline Everington

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

No abstract provided.

The True Legacy Of Atkins And Roper: The Unreliability Principle, Mentally Ill Defendants, And The Death Penalty’S Unraveling, Scott E. Sundby

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

In striking down the death penalty for intellectually disabled and juvenile defendants, Atkins v. Virginia and Roper v. Simmons have been understandably heralded as important holdings under the Court’s Eighth Amendment jurisprudence that has found the death penalty “disproportional” for certain types of defendants and crimes. This Article argues, however, that the cases have a far more revolutionary reach than their conventional understanding. In both cases the Court went one step beyond its usual two-step analysis of assessing whether imposing the death penalty violated “evolving standards of decency.” This extra step looked at why even though intellectual disability and youth …

Women In The Crowd Of Corporate Directors: Following, Walking Alone, And Meaningfully Contributing, Joan Macleod Heminway

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Mail Order Feminism, Marcia Zug

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

This Essay will argue that America’s current marriage crisis is a problem that could be solved by encouraging mail order marriages. Specifically, Part I of this Article will show how the current marriage crisis is the result of an increasing educational gap between American men and women that is leaving less educated men with few marriage prospects. It will further argue that the loss of marriage prospects is concerning both because marriage is often the social institution that supports men as their job prospects falter and because it has the potential to create an angry and dangerous underclass of men …

Revising For Genre: Mary Robinson's Poetry From Newspaper Verse To Lyrical Tales, Shelley Aj Jones

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation focuses on Mary Robinson’s Lyrical Tales, not as the culminating point to which her writing inevitably led, as is frequently imagined in accounts of her life and work, but, instead, as the product of an intricate process of revision that highlights her investment in genre. Versions of many of the poems that Robinson included in Lyrical Tales originally were published in newspapers and periodicals. Rather than seeing the changes as a move toward a best or most mature or inspired version, I argue that Robinson revised to meet the requirements of her new genre, the lyrical tale. I …

Independence At Large: Contemporary China's Alternative Music Scenes And The Cultural Practices Of Post-Socialist Urban Youth, Shan Huang

Theses and Dissertations

Using contemporary Beijing’s alternative music scenes as a focal point, this ethnographic research seeks to enrich the understanding of China’s post-socialist urban youth by examining their cultural practices. First, this thesis offers an analytical account of the popularizing embrace of “independent cultures,” which is defined as a collection of experienceable objects and activities in musical, filmic, theatric, and other cultural forms that are well recognized yet believed by advocates as having aesthetic and participatory features that are different from those produced in the popular culture industry. While the vogue for independent cultures is substantially conditioned by the socioeconomic attributes of …

Elaborating Patient Agency In Breast-Cancer Care: A Grounded Theoretical Analysis Of Patients Asserting Treatment Preferences, Rachel Sofia Erdman

Dissertations and Theses

Successful physician-patient communication is increasingly being acknowledged as a vital aspect of healthcare today. Research in the field has not examined all aspects of patient-centered care and the aspects that have been studied have not been grounded in actual patient action. The research done in the field has largely been studied quantitatively. The present thesis research attempts to contribute to the gap in the field of physician-patient communication by qualitatively examining patient assertiveness. This thesis examines conversations between women in Portland, Oregon recently diagnosed with breast cancer talking to their surgeons about their diagnoses and treatment options. Using grounded qualitative …

The Bg News December 15, 2014, Bowling Green State University

BG News (Student Newspaper)

The BGSU campus student newspaper. December 15, 2014. Volume 94-Issue 48.

Mental Disorders, Mental Health Problems, And Treatment Among Army Recruiters And Recruiting Candidates, 2011-2013: An Examination Of Current Rates In The Recruiting Population, Chadwick Karl Knight

Theses and Dissertations

Purpose: This study sought to determine the prevalence and severity of mental health disorders (MHDs) and/or mental health problems (MHPs) and types of treatments received among soldiers who have or will serve as recruiters. Research Design and Methods: Data were collected between October 2011 to July 2013 from active duty soldiers (N=2,783) attending courses on Fort Jackson at the U.S. Army’s Recruiting and Retention School (RRS). Students consisted of regular active duty soldiers and activated Guard/Reservist that were either recruiters or recruiting candidates. The medical records of participating recruiters and recruiting candidates were reviewed for the prevalence of MHDs and …

Beliefs, Practices, And Preservice Teachers: A Case Study, Janie Riddle Goodman

Theses and Dissertations

Existing in the chronology of content area literacy instruction is a convincing body of research that supports the role of strategic learning in students’ literacy development. However, much of what is known about teaching reading comprehension strategies is not part of the instruction found in many secondary classrooms. Even though studies have shown how students benefit from using comprehension strategies, the instructional necessities for teaching those strategies are not part of many secondary teachers’ practices. Additionally, the historical focus on literacy practices and strategies is shifting towards attention on the critical role of the disciplines in secondary literacy and the …

The Effects Of Robot-Child Interactions On Interpersonal And Intrapersonal Coordination, Kinga Palatinus

Master's Theses

Coordination is crucial throughout development, from motor development and language acquisition to children’s play and other social interactions. Based on the links between motor and social behavior, proper coordination should help children connect socially with others. Being part of a larger study investigating the effects of a multisystem intervention tool for children with ASD, this work examined the effect of robot-child interaction on interpersonal and intrapersonal coordination in typically developing children. 5-year-olds and 7 year-olds participated in a four-week training protocol, where children had to copy the movements of a small humanoid robot. Measures of cross recurrence quantification analysis revealed …

The Boundaries Of Youth: Labor, Maturity, And Coming Of Age In Early Nineteenth-Century New England, 1790-1850, Jane Fiegen Green

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

This project uses the experiences of young men and women to show how the language of maturity laid a foundation for the mythology of democratic capitalism in nineteenth-century America. Freed from the bounds of the household but left to the mercy of the emerging capitalist economy, young New Englanders struggled to reconcile the democratic ideals of work with the realities of class stratification. Expected to show their self-ownership through the performance of gender-defined employment, young men and women used their work experiences to display their maturity. Recognition as competent, mature adults required young people to find and demonstrate independence through …

The Automatic And Controlled Influence Of Environmental Cues During Recognition Judgments, Diana Selmeczy

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Recognition judgments are often made in the context of environmental information, such as instructions or payout regimens that observers have been shown to use in order to adaptively bias their memory judgments. These adaptive biases are usually characterized as a strategic, controlled process that observers adopt intentionally, and this is formalized in signal detection theory wherein strategic criterion placement is assumed fully independent of recognition evidence signals. However, recent pilot research in our laboratory suggests that the ability to regulate recognition decision biases in the context of environmental cues may not be fully controlled by observers suggesting an automatic or …

Nuns In The Newsroom: The Sisters Of Marillac College And U.S. Sisters’ Involvement In Social Justice Reform, Elizabeth D. Nako

History & Classics Undergraduate Theses

"Nuns in the Newsroom: The Sisters of Marillac College and U.S. Sisters' Involvement in Social Justice Reform" is a senior honors history thesis project.  The Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) was guided by the spirit of aggiornamento, or “a bringing up to date” of the Catholic Church.  As a result of Vatican II documents such as Gaudium et Spes, they influenced U.S. sisters to expand their ministry from performing works of mercy to advocating for legal, economic, and social justice in addition to their charitable endeavors.  However, after doing research at the Daughters of Charity Archives in Emmitsburg, Maryland and …

Human Trafficking & Native Peoples In Oregon: A Human Rights Report, Haley Weedn, Joseph Scovel, Jason Juran

American Indian Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Periodontal Microorganisms, Obesity, Chronic Inflammation, And Type 1 Diabetes, Georges Joseph Nahhas

Theses and Dissertations

Periodontal disease is a low-grade chronic inflammation in the tissues surrounding the teeth caused by multiple, mostly gram-negative pathogens. It is associated with diabetes, obesity, and chronic inflammation. The specific roles that periodontal microorganism play in these conditions are not well-studied. Hereby, we explored how periodontal bacteria from sub gingival plaque clustered in youth with and without type 1 diabetes, and how such patterns related to body-mass-index percentile (BMI percentile), C-reactive protein (CRP) and adiponectin. Cross-sectional data were collected from 105 youth with type 1 diabetes and 71 without diabetes. Participants were between 12 and 19 years of age receiving …

Culturally Relevant Teaching: A Case Study On Teaching Statistics In The High School Setting, Lashaune Natae Smith

Theses and Dissertations

Public school enrollment is increasing for African American, Hispanic, Asian/Pacific Islander, and American Indian/Alaskan Native students. However, minority and immigrant children tend to perform lower academically than White, middle-class students. Hence, there is a growing need to reform pedagogical practices for underachieving student populations to have improved chances for school success. Culturally relevant teaching is an effective approach to addressing the social and academic needs of minority students. The purpose of this study was to examine culturally relevant teaching in high school statistics classrooms of predominantly African American students. Using a qualitative case study research design, this study examined two …

Exploration Of Implicit Bias On Multidisciplinary Team Members When Referring African American Students For Special Education Services, Twana Romona Fletcher

Theses and Dissertations

The disproportionality or overrepresentation of African American students in special education is a longstanding problem that continues to be prevalent today. There are numerous reasons why this phenomenon continues to persist including but not limited to implicit bias among multidisciplinary team members (MDT). One function of the MDT is to decide if a student needs to be referred for special education services. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the decision making processes of the MDT members to determine if implicit bias impacted their decision to refer an African American student for special education services. This qualitative study …

Bibimbap: Identity Construction In Korean Third Culture Kids During Higher Education, Megan I. Beard

Theses and Dissertations

Amidst increasing interconnectedness and transmigration of the 21st century, a number of families are leaving South Korea for business, work, or education; their children are raised as Third Culture Kids (TCKs)—children who accompany their parents abroad. This study used the lens of cultural globalization to examine how Korean TCKs used their life experiences to inform their identity construction, especially during higher education. Participants were Korean students and recent alumni from universities in Korea, the United States, and abroad who had spent at least three childhood years living outside Korea with their families. Data were collected through a series of unstructured …