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Increasing Reflexivity In Service Learning Through Arts Based Research, Lindsay A. Beddes

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to understand the processes of learning and meaning making that occur when people participate in long-term service learning programs. Service learning is a broad term that is used in many contexts and has a variety of meanings. The meaning used in this research is broad and includes include individuals not currently enrolled in college. Many researchers have noted the importance of reflection for learning through service, but the literature has a paucity of research on reflexivity. Addressing these gaps in the literature, this dissertation focused on the development of participants’ epistemological approaches to service …

Policy Entrepreneurs, Narratives, And Policy Change, Victoria Cartwright

Public Affairs Dissertations - Archive

The goal of this dissertation is to uncover how policy entrepreneurs use narratives to influence policy change. Prior studies have attributed scientific evidence to policy change and neglected narratives as an attributing factor. Primarily, narratives have been considered value-laden and unsystematic. However, this study hopes to enrich the policy change literature by using the Narrative Policy Framework to examine systematically how powerful actors use beneficial and failure narratives to influence policy change. This study will demonstrate that policy change does not solely occur due to exogenous events and can be ascribed to the story lines created by powerful actors to …

An Intelligent Multimodal Upper-Limb Rehabilitation Robotic System, Alexandros Lioulemes

Computer Science and Engineering Dissertations - Archive

A traffic accident, a battlefield injury, or a stroke can lead to brain or musculoskeletal injuries that impact motor and cognitive functions and can drastically change a person's life. In such situations, rehabilitation plays a critical role in the ability of the patient to partially or totally regain motor function, but the optimal training approach remains unclear. Robotic technologies are recognized as powerful tools to promote neuroplasticity and stimulate motor re-learning. Moreover, they deliver high-intensity, repetitive, active and task-oriented training; in addition, they provide objective measurements for patient evaluation. The primary focus of this research is to investigate the development …

Processing Of English Focal Stress By L1-English And L1-Mandarin/L2-English Speakers, Ellen Rachel Guigelaar

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Late second language (L2) learners often struggle with L2 prosody, both in perception and production. This may result from first language (L1) interference or some property of how a second language functions in a late learner independent of what their L1 might be. Here we investigate prosody’s role in determining information structure through focal stress. In particular, this thesis compares L1-Mandarin/L2-English and native/L1-English speakers’ perception and production of English focal stress, namely how both groups process focal stress, how that processing affects eye movements, and how the various aspects of focal stress production between groups. Our first two experiments targeted …

Beyond A Home Language: A Case Study Of Spanish As A Heritage Language Developed In The Home Sphere, And In A Dual Language Program, Maria Clara Gutierrez

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Abstract: The purpose and goal of this case study was to: Better understand Spanish as a Heritage Language. Document positive, neutral, or negative influences of a Dual Language immersion program on the Heritage Language development of an HL participant versus typical HL development embodied by participation in mainstream English only education program. Examine the potential role, if any, of academic pedagogy in supporting HL maintenance and/or development. | 232 pages

Simple Weight Modules Of The Lie Algebra Of Vector Fields Of C2, Andrew Cavaness

Mathematics Dissertations - Archive

Classification of the weight modules of the Lie algebra Wn of vector fields on C n has been a long-standing problem in the area of representation theory. In this thesis, a classification of all simple weight modules of W2 with a uniformly bounded set of weight multiplicities is provided, and much of the theory that will be needed to classify all simple weight modules of Wn with a uniformly bounded set of weight multiplicities will also be developed. To achieve this classification, a new family of generalized tensor Wn-modules is introduced, and a twisted localization functor is applied.

Effects Of Parent Training On Increased Knowledge And Changes In Perceptions Regarding Transition To Adulthood For Middle School Youth With Disabilities, Lauren E. Wright

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Parents of children with severe/moderate disabilities experience uncertainty and a lack of knowledge as their children go through the transition to adulthood. Research has shown parents play a key role in their child's postschool outcome success and that parent training and beginning transition preparation early are key predictors. This study examined the effects of parent training on parents' knowledge, expectations, and action towards their child's transition to adulthood. Participants consisted of parents of middle school youth with severe/moderate disabilities. The study measured parent knowledge, expectations, and actions. Procedures involved (a) a pretest administered to parents on their transition knowledge, (b) …

Building Community Using Experiential Education With Elementary Preservice Teachers In A Social Studies Methodology Course, Stephanie L. Speicher

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

There is urgency for teacher educators to instruct preservice teachers in the core tenants of social justice education. This urgency is based upon the ever-growing shift in the American demographic landscape and the responsibility of educators to teach for equity, justice, identity and community within classrooms across the U.S. Preservice teachers report feeling inadequately prepared to educate for social justice when entering the formal classroom setting. Feelings of incompetence in social justice teaching pedagogy expressed among preservice teachers coupled with minimal examination in the literature of the effects of teacher education practices that aid in the readiness to teach for …

Spiritual Transcendence As A Sixth Personality Factor In Russia : Cross-Cultural Generalizability And Influence On Psychosocial Outcomes., Ksenia Kopeikin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Previous research has suggested that Spiritual Transcendence (ST), which is the ability to stand outside one’s own immediate experience, to see unity in nature and to feel connection with the rest of humanity and the spirits, is a universal human experience. Research also suggests that ST may form a sixth personality factor, operating in a manner similar to, but separately from the Big Five personality traits. That is, ST may be a source of intrinsic motivation and influence human behavior and psychosocial outcomes similar to the Big Five. Previous research has established the incremental validity of ST over and above …

New Perspectives On The History Of The Ohio Valley Frontier, 1750-1838 : Connecting Recent Scholarship With Public Interpretation., Ellen Rich

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis aims to interpret for the public both the native and white perspectives of the conquest and colonization of the Ohio Valley frontier by Anglo-Americans in the eighteenth and early nineteenth century. Its focus is a planned museum exhibition, “Conquering the First American West: The Ohio Valley Frontier, 1750-1838,” which explores interactions between American Indians and Anglo-Americans on the Ohio Valley frontier and their consequences. The introduction justifies the need for the exhibition and outlines its major arguments. The second section examines the historiography of the conquest of the Ohio Valley and shows why stronger public interpretation is needed. …

I Heard But Didn't Hear Analyzing Women's Narrative Devices In Difficult Family Stories, Deanna Allred

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This thesis analyzed the narrative devices women use when telling difficult or sad stories in familial settings. I documented a story told by my mother, Myrle Hoagland, about the death of her twin brother at age 17. I provided a textual analysis concentrating on the storyteller’s use of silence, additional information, and non-linear structure, to provide meaning and instruction to her family. I also contextually analyzed the story, illuminating the unique way informal learning affected the storyteller’s performance. My analysis demonstrated how I, as an emic ethnographer, documented a familiar story about a death in my family. Upon deeper study, …

Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition In Middle School: An Examination Of Three Instructional Conditions, David B. Lee

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The importance of vocabulary knowledge gained through incidental learning is well documented. The growth of incidental vocabulary knowledge is especially crucial for middle school students due to the complex words encountered in their studies. However, research on incidental vocabulary acquisition for middle school students is lacking. The purpose of this study was to compare the relative effectiveness of three instructional conditions (reading, writing, and reading and writing) on incidental vocabulary acquisition and retention with middle school students in an English as a first language (L1) environment.

In this within subjects repeated measure study, 263 eighth-grade participants received treatment in three …

From "Struggling" To "Example": How Cross-Age Tutoring Impacts Latina Adolescents' Reader Identities, Dustin H. Drake

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Educators and policy makers have shown a consistent concern over the achievement gap. In academic assessments, Latino students have demonstrated lower achievement than their peers, particularly in reading scores. Many researchers attribute the existence of the achievement gap to a school system that ignores Latino culture or perpetuates struggles in Latino students’ reading by being culturally insensitive. Multiple theorists suggest that school systems that better understand Latino identities will be better at instructing Latino students. Many programs, including Latinos in Action, have been implemented in attempts to close this gap. The Latinos in Action program utilizes Latino adolescents as peer …

Comparing Total Expenditures By Source Of Long-Term Services And Supports., Maresa R. Corder

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study compares total expenditures between beneficiaries enrolled in traditional Long-Term Care (LTC) and beneficiaries enrolled in Home and Community Based Services (HCBS) in a Quasi-Experimental Simple Ex Post Facto study utilizing multiple linear regression with inverted propensity score weighting. The results demonstrated, during the two years of the study period, that total expenditures were on average $14,565.03 (with a p-value oflessfor the total two years of the study, for HCBS beneficiaries when compared to their LTC counterparts. There remains today a belief that expenditures of elderly, dual beneficiaries electing to age-in-place for supported self-care expend less than that of …

Articulating The New Normal(S) : Mental Disability, Medical Discourse, And Rhetorical Action., Andrew Wesley Holladay

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

“Articulating the New Normal(s): Mental Disability, Medical Discourse, and Rhetorical Action” studies the writing of people diagnosed with autism and post- traumatic stress disorder within online discussion boards related to mental health and outlines their unique rhetorical strategies for interacting with biomedical ideologies of psychiatry and activist discourses. The opening chapter situates this dissertation in relation to previous scholarship in Rhetoric, Disability Studies, and other fields. I also provide a summary of the set of mixed methods I use to gather and analyze my data, including rhetorical analysis, corpus analysis, and qualitative interviews. In Chapter 2, “Medical Terminology and Discourse …

How Muslims Help : An Ethnography Of Muslim Voluntary Assistance For Syrian Refugees In Louisville, Ky., Irene Levy Yates

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines Islamic faith-based organizations’ involvement in Syrian refugee resettlement in Louisville, KY with special attention to the impact of an Islamic Relief USA community engagement grant awarded to Kentucky Refugee Ministries in 2014. A description of local Muslim community support for newly arrived refugees was constructed via participant observation and semi-structured interviews with former and current resettlement agency employees, a diverse set of Muslim community volunteers, and refugees who participate in and/or are supported by Islamic faith-based organizations. Muslim communities in Louisville approach refugee resettlement in ways that are significantly different from both resettlement agency staff and past …

Exploring A Multifactorial, Clinical Model Of Thought Disorder : Application Of A Dimensional, Transdiagnostic Approach., Mara Ann Hart

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Background: Bleuler saw thought disorder as the core defining feature of psychotic phenomena, reflective of the “splitting of the psychic functions” that occurred when, in the process of thinking, one’s ideas and feelings disconnect, becoming fragmented and competing functions. Unfortunately, interest in thought disorder as the conceptual core of psychosis was lost with rise of the modern DSM system, paralleling the shift towards a more simplistic, categorical way of defining psychiatric disorders. Aims: This study examined thought disorder from a dimensional perspective, with the aim of disentangling qualitative heterogeneity and diverse sources of influence. Analyses were based on …

Facing Diversity In Early Childhood Education: Teachers’ Perceptions, Beliefs, And Teaching Practices Of Anti-Bias Education In Korea, Yerim Hong

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

The changing composition of early childhood classrooms challenges teachers to be more responsive to the diverse needs of all children. This study explores the challenges and successes early childhood teachers experience with facing diversity in their classrooms. The purpose of this qualitative interview study was to investigate kindergarten teachers’ perceptions, beliefs, and teaching practices concerning anti-bias education in Seoul, South Korea. There were two groups of in-service kindergarten teachers, four teachers in each group, who participated in one-on-one interviews with structured and open-ended questions. The teachers in one group had more experience with teaching in diverse classroom settings than the …

Language Learning And Metacognition: An Intervention To Improve Language Classrooms, Rebecca Elise Knoph

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

In the USA, the trend of increase in foreign language enrollments at the college level has suddenly begun to decline since 2009, despite the notion that learning multiple languages is becoming essential for effectively communicating with others from diverse native language backgrounds. This new decline may be due in part to inefficient and outdated foreign language courses. The current study examined the effect of how we assess our current knowledge and learning techniques (metacognition) on educational outcomes in hopes to improve the effectiveness of the university classrooms. College students were exposed to new metacognitive strategies that could benefit their language …

Who Are The Apistoi? Symbolic Boundaries And Anthropological Language In 2 Cor 6:14-7:1, Nii Addo Kobina Abrahams

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Joseph A. Fitzmyer’s “Qumran and the Interpolated Paragraph in 2 Cor 6:14-7:1,” originally published in 1961, argued that 2 Cor 6:14-7:1 was an interpolation from an undiscovered Qumran text. Fitzmyer’s thesis was the prevailing scholarly opinion for over a decade, and while several counter-arguments have convincingly challenged Fitzmyer’s theory, scholars are still hard-pressed to explain how the passage fits into its context. Not only does 6:14-7:1 seem to lack any organic connection to the verses immediately prior or following, but it also contains unique vocabulary and what seems to be uncharacteristic use of standard Pauline terms. However, all of these …

Active Auditory Experience In Infancy Promotes Brain Plasticity In Theta And Gamma Oscillations, Gabriella Musacchia, Silvia Ortiz-Mantilla, Naseem Choudhury, Teresa Realpe-Bonilla, Cynthia P. Roesler, April A. Benasich

All Faculty Scholarship

Language acquisition in infants is driven by on-going neural plasticity that is acutely sensitive to environmental acoustic cues. Recent studies showed that attention-based experience with non-linguistic, temporally-modulated auditory stimuli sharpens cortical responses. A previous ERP study from this laboratory showed that interactive auditory experience via behavior-based feedback (AEx), over a 6-week period from 4- to 7-months-of-age, confers a processing advantage, compared to passive auditory exposure (PEx) or maturation alone (Naïve Control, NC). Here, we provide a follow-up investigation of the underlying neural oscillatory patterns in these three groups. In AEx infants, Standard stimuli with invariant frequency (STD) elicited greater Theta-band …

Cultural Support In Nursing, Sabine Knoppke-Wetzel

UReCA: The NCHC Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity

This literature review explored the available cultural support existing in the United States and abroad for internationally-educated nurses (IEN) and foreign-born student nurses (FBSN) in order to better understand how to improve patient outcomes by ensuring a successful cultural and linguistic transition into American nursing schools and clinical facilities. Fourteen articles regarding IEN and 12 articles regarding FBSN were used to compile recommendations to help create a more inclusive and supportive environment for IEN and FBSN in the United States. The results of this literature review indicate that there is an abundance of information regarding interventions for FBSN, but much …

Using A Culturally Adapted Learning Tool With Latinos Diagnosed With Depression, Monica Lechuga

Social Work Theses - Archive

Due to stigma, low mental health knowledge, and cultural beliefs a significant number of Latinos do not seek treatment for depression. Interventions and treatment methods that are culturally adapted and consider the patient's cultural perspective are minimal due to the lack of bilingual mental health providers. Using secondary data, this study reviewed a quantitative research study conducted at a community health center. The study conducted by Dr. Sanchez at a community health clinic, utilized a culturally adapted fotonovela as a depression education intervention (DEI) for Latinos diagnosed with depression. The purpose of this review was to analyze the effectiveness of …

Scholarworks Statistics - August 2017, Scholarworks

ScholarWorks Reports

For the month of August 2017, ScholarWorks recorded a total of 24,697 full-text and additional file downloads and 9,833 page views.

Humor Detection, Manan Jain

Dissertations and Theses

Humor is a very complex characteristic concept that defines us as human beings and social entities. Humor is an essential component in personal communication. How to create a method or model to discover the structures behind humor, recognize humor and even extraction of humor remains a challenge because of its subjective nature. Humor also provides valuable information related to linguistic, psychological, neurological and sociological phenomena. However, because of its complexity, humor is still an undefined phenomenon. Because the reaction that make people laugh can hardly be generalized or formalized. For instance, cognitive aspects as well as cultural knowledge, are some …

Speech Processing Approach For Diagnosing Dementia In An Early Stage, Roozbeh Sadeghian, J. David Schaffer, Stephen A. Zahorian

Faculty Works

The clinical diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias is very challenging, especially in the early stages. Our hypothesis is that any disease that affects particular brain regions involved in speech production and processing will also leave detectable finger prints in the speech. Computerized analysis of speech signals and computational linguistics have progressed to the point where an automatic speech analysis system is a promising approach for a low-cost non-invasive diagnostic tool for early detection of Alzheimer’s disease.

We present empirical evidence that strong discrimination between subjects with a diagnosis of probable Alzheimer’s versus matched normal controls can be achieved …

Virtue, Positive Psychology, And Religion: Consideration Of An Overarching Virtue And An Underpinning Mechanism, Lindsey M. Root Luna, Daryl R. Van Tongeren, Charlotte Vanoyen-Witvliet

Faculty Publications

The virtues are a central focus of research at the intersection of positive psychology and the psychology of religion and spirituality. Humility, patience, and gratitude are addressed in the target articles of this special issue. Beyond examining each individual virtue, we argue here that the connections among virtues also warrant empirical attention. Specifically, we explain the unity of the virtues thesis, which suggests that individual virtues may be a part of a larger overarching construct, which we propose may be practical wisdom, or simply general virtuousness. Similarly, we propose that a common mechanism, such as automatic self-regulation, may facilitate these …

"Love Is Gender Blind": The Lived Experiences Of Transgender Couples Who Navigate One Partner's Gender Transition, Barry Lynn Motter

Dissertations

This study investigated the experiences of romantic couples who maintained their relationship when one partner transitioned gender. For this phenomenology, 13 couples were interviewed as a dyad and individually from within systemic, feminist, and queer research theories. Couples were interviewed together to best encapsulate their couple narrative and honor their experiences. Themes that emerged from the interviews appeared overall consistent with research regarding transgender couple experiences. Couples discussed how much they loved each other and cared about their relationship above and beyond a partner’s gender identity, sharing they felt committed to their partners as people. Several common relationship changes were …

“Lands Of The Future:” German-Speaking Identity, Networks, And Territoriality In The South Atlantic, 1820-1930, Isabelle Rispler

History Dissertations - Archive

The movement of German-speakers to the South Atlantic did not begin with Nazis seeking refuge in Argentina in the aftermath of World War II, nor did it start with the organization of the German protectorate of South-West Africa in 1884. Throughout the nineteenth century, the great majority of German-speakers leaving Europe travelled and migrated to North America, but some German-speakers had begun settling in both Argentina and Namibia well before the turn of the twentieth century. German-speaking merchants and missionaries started travelling to and settling in the South Atlantic in the 1820s. These South Atlantic German-speakers were influenced by the …

N. G. Wilson, From Byzantium To Italy: Greek Studies In The Italian Renaissance, 2nd Edition. New York, Ny: Bloomsbury Academic, 2016. Pp. 248. Paper (Isbn 978-1-4742-5047-4) $35.95., Sarah Gwyneth Ross

New England Classical Journal

No abstract provided.