Digital Commons Network^™

Preliminary Findings Of A Phenomenological Study Of Middle Eastern Women’S Experiences Studying Engineering In Ireland, Shannon Chance, Bill Williams

Conference papers

This paper reports analysis of phenomenological interviews conducted with eight women studying engineering, all Arabic speakers and practicing Muslims, and all from the countries of Oman and Kuwait. Data were collected as part of a larger study of women’s experiences learning engineering in institutions of higher education in Poland, Portugal, and Ireland. The eight women contributing data for the analysis for this paper were all enrolled on engineering degree programs in Dublin, Ireland, where they studied together. The larger study involves conducting longitudinal data via interviews with 47 women around Europe to understand what their undergraduate experiences in STEM have …

Identification And Preliminary Review Of Doctoral Theses In Engineering Education That Have Used Phenomenological Methods, Shannon Chance, I. Direito

Conference papers

46th SEFI Annual Conference 2018. Creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship for engineering education excellence.

A Comparison Of Traditional And Adaptive Comparative Judgment Assessment Techniques For Freshmen Engineering Design Projects, Scott R. Bartholomew, Greg J. Strimel, Andrew Jackson

Faculty Publications

This article examines the use of an alternative form of assessment for engineering design projects called adaptive comparative judgment (ACJ). The researchers employed an ACJ tool to evaluate undergraduate engineering student design projects in an effort to examine its’ reliability, validity, and utility in comparison with traditional assessment techniques. The ACJ process employed multiple judges to compare the design artifacts of 16 first-year engineering majors. The authors conducted an analysis of the reliability and validity of the ACJ method compared to the traditional rubric used to evaluate the project and the performance data of each student’s design prototype. For these …

Characterization Of Pyrolysis Products From Fast Pyrolysis Of Live And Dead Vegetation Native To The Southern United States, Mohammad-Saeed Safdari, Mahmood Rahmati, Elham Amini, Joel E. Howarth, Jansen P. Berryhill, Mark Dietenberger, David R. Weise, Thomas H. Fletcher

Faculty Publications

Prescribed burning (controlled burning) is used to decrease accumulation of combustible materials and reduce impact of uncontrolled wildland fires. Prescribed fires are often used to burn undergrowth in Southern forests of the United States. In order to improve prescribed fire application, accomplish desired fire effects, and limit potential runaway fires, an improved understanding of the fundamental processes related to combustion of heterogeneous fuel beds of live and dead fuels is needed. The initial processes of combustion involve pyrolysis and ignition. During this research, fast pyrolysis of 14 live and dead (biomass) plant species which are native to the Southern United …

Development And Preliminary Assessment Of Interprofessional Education Focused On Vulnerable Populations, Celia Pechak, Connie Summers, Barbara Schoen, Margie Padilla, Patricia Lara, Joanna Velasco, Stephanie Capshaw

Faculty Publications

With the current state of the U.S. healthcare system, interprofessional collaborative practice (IPCP) has never been more important. Health professions educators are increasingly incorporating interprofessional education (IPE) in their curricula in order to prepare students for IPCP. The HealthFocused IPE Community of Practice (representing nursing, occupational therapy, pharmacy, physical therapy, rehabilitation counseling, social work, and speech-language pathology) at the University of Texas at El Paso has created a unique IPE model centered on vulnerable populations. The purposes of this paper are to describe the early development of this innovative IPE model and present findings from an evaluation of an IPE …

Polysyllabic Shortening In Speakers Exposed To Two Languages, Todd A. Gibson, Connie Summers

Faculty Publications

Polysyllabic shortening is used to maintain stress-timed rhythm in English, but used negligibly in Spanish. It is unknown how polysyllabic shortening is influenced when individuals are exposed to one language that employs it and one that does not. We calculated polysyllabic shortening for 35 functionally monolingual English-speaking adults and 19 relatively balanced Spanish–English bilingual peers who repeated English and Spanish nonwords. Results showed that speech motor patterns learned early in life might be sufficient to block cross-linguistic transfer of polysyllabic shortening despite limited language proficiency, and bilingual speakers appear to signal membership in the majority language by increasing polysyllabic shortening.

The Spark In The Powder: Iroquois Freemen Trappers In The Rocky Mountain Fur Trade, Jay H. Buckley

Faculty Publications

This article challenges Iroquoian stereotypes portrayed in existing fur trade records by contrasting the failure of the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) to integrate Iroquois and Métis trappers as successfully as the North West Company (NWC) had. The article also compares that to the successful integration and positive portrayal of Iroquois and Métis (mixed-desent) trappers within the American Rocky Mountain fur trade. Racial and economic discrimination by the HBC toward the Iroquois caused a negative impact on the financial success of the Snake Country expeditions under HBC’s Alexander Ross. Additionally, behaviors resulting from such discrimination received negative portrayals in Peter Skene …

Effects Of Parent-Implemented Interventions On Outcomes Of Children With Developmental Disabilities: A Meta-Analysis., Tina Dyches, Timothy B. Smith, Barbara Mandleco, Byran Korth

Faculty Publications

Background: A large body of literature exists related to parent-implemented interventions for children with disabilities, so it is helpful to synthesize the results of outcome-based interventions for children with developmental disabilities. Specifically, what are the effects of parent-implemented interventions intended to improve children’s (1) social behaviors, (2) life skills/adaptive behavior, and (3) communication skills?

Method: Using meta-analytic aggregation of effect sizes across 30 studies with a total of 1,356 participants, this review examined the association between parent-implemented interventions and intended outcomes of young children with developmental disabilities.

Results: Across all 30 studies comparing children’s outcomes to control groups, the random …

Comparing K-12 Online And Blended Teaching Competencies: A Literature Review, Emily Pulham, Charles R. Graham

Faculty Publications

This article presents a synthesis of reports and research on K-12 blended teaching competencies compared with K-12 online teaching competencies. The skills needed to teach in online and blended environments are distinct from traditional teaching, but teacher education programs often do not equip preservice teachers for the new modes of instruction. Additionally, there is a dearth of research on blended teaching competencies. This review synthesizes 8 blended teaching documents and 10 online teaching documents. Seven global themes identified in both competency domains are (1) pedagogy, (2) management, (3) assessment, (4) technology, (5) instructional design, (6) dispositions, and (7) improvement. The …

Toward Conflict Or Compromise? How Violent Metaphors Polarize Partisan Issue Attitudes, Nathan P. Kalmoe, Joshua R. Gubler, David A. Wood

Faculty Publications

We know much about how opinion leaders drive mass partisan polarization with position-taking cues but little on how different message types polarize citizens, and who responds most to those messages attributes. This article contributes new insights by investigating how exposure to common violent metaphors interacts with audience personality traits to polarize partisans on issues. Building from research on conflict orientations, we theorize that aggressive rhetoric primes aggression in aggressive partisans, motivating greater intransigence on party positions. As a consequence, aggressive partisans are pulled further apart on issues, thereby reducing prospects for compromise. We find support for our predictions in two …

Manager Sentiment And Stock Returns, Fuwei Jiang, Joshua A. Lee, Xiumin Martin, Guofu Zhou

Faculty Publications

This paper constructs a manager sentiment index based on the aggregated textual tone of corporate financial disclosures. We find that manager sentiment is a strong negative pre- dictor of future aggregate stock market returns, with monthly in-sample and out-of-sample R 2 s of 9.75% and 8.38%, respectively, which is far greater than the predictive power of other previously studied macroeconomic variables. Its predictive power is economically compa- rable and is informationally complementary to existing measures of investor sentiment. Higher manager sentiment precedes lower aggregate earnings surprises and greater aggre- gate investment growth. Moreover, manager sentiment negatively predicts cross-sectional stock returns, …

Proprietary Costs And Sealing Documents In Patent Litigation, Richard Frankel, Joshua A. Lee, Zawadi Lemayian

Faculty Publications

We study whether the sealing of a defendant’s judicial records during a patent lawsuit filing correlates with the defendant’s level of competition and disclosure. Courts permit sealing of judicial records when competitive damage outweighs the public interest in access to documents and records. We find that defendants with sealed judicial records have higher research and development (R&D), lower industry sales concentration, and more references to competition in their annual reports than defendants without sealed judicial records. We observe faster mean reversion of return on net operating assets when courts seal defendant records. The results suggest that sealing relates to archival …

Public Goods And Public Policy: What Is Public Good, And Who And What Decides?, Ellen Hazelkorn, Andrew Gibson

Articles

Higher education is usually seen as serving the public good, especially when funded directly by the state, and because of the ‘social benefit efficiency gains and potential equity effects on opportunity and reduced inequality’ (McMahon, 2009, p. 255). Calhoun (2006, p. 19) argues that public support for higher education is only given and maintained according to its capacity, capability, and willingness, to ‘educate citizens in general, to share knowledge, to distribute it as widely as possible in accord with publically articulated purposes’.

The Heart Of Cities Seen Through The Making Of Objects, P Davis

School of Art, Design and Architecture

No abstract provided.

Safe Research Protocol, Becky Stancer

School of Law, Humanities and Social Sciences

Joint protocol created for NIHR (9PB-PG-0815-20058) and Autistica (7239 )

The Politics Of The Digital Single Market: Culture Vs. Competition Vs. Copyright, Simone Schroff, John Street

School of Law, Humanities and Social Sciences

This paper examines the implications for European music culture of the European Union’s (EU) Digital Single Market strategy. It focuses on the regulatory framework being created for the management of copyright policy, and in particular the role played by collective management organisations (CMOs or collecting societies). One of the many new opportunities created by digitalisation has been the music streaming services. These depend on consumers being able to access music wherever they are, but such a system runs counter to the management of rights on a national basis and through collecting organisations which act as monopolies within their own territories. …

The Evaluation Of Physicians’ Communication Skills From Multiple Perspectives, Jenni Burt, Gary Abel, Marc N. Elliott, Natasha Elmore, Jennifer Newbould, Antoinette Davey, Nadia Llanwarne, Inocencio Maramba, Charlotte Paddison, John Campbell, Martin Roland

School of Nursing and Midwifery

No abstract provided.

Hidden In Plain Sight: Species Richness And Habitat Characterisation Of Sublittoral Pebble Beds, Julian Evans, Martin J. Attrill, Joseph A. Borg, Peter A. Cotton, Patrick J. Schembri

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

No abstract provided.

Walking In Minimalist Shoes Is Effective For Strengthening Foot Muscles, Sarah T. Ridge, Mark T. Olsen, Dustin A. Bruening, Kevin Jurgensmeier, David Griffin, Irene S. Davis, A. Wayne Johnson

Faculty Publications

Introduction: Weakness of foot muscles may contribute to a variety of loading-related injuries. Supportive footwear may contribute to intrinsic foot muscle weakness by reducing the muscles’ role in locomotion (e.g., absorbing forces and controlling motion). Increased stimulus to the foot muscles can be provided through a variety of mechanisms, including minimalist footwear and directed exercise.

Purpose: To determine the effect of walking in minimalist footwear or performing foot strengthening exercises on foot muscle size and strength.

Methods: Fifty-seven runners were randomly assigned to one of three groups—minimalist shoe walking (MSW), foot strengthening (FS) exercise, or control (C). All groups maintained …

Occupant Heating Practices In Dwellings: A Methodology For Identifying Scheduled Heating Periods And Manual Override Events, Na Bruce-Konuah, Rv Jones, A Fuertes, P De Wilde

School of Art, Design and Architecture

Heating operation can be automated using a timer/programmer and thermostat, manually controlled by occupants, or both. In ten UK dwellings, both automated and manual override heating events were identified from 30 minute time series data of living room air temperature measurements. Multivariate logistic regression was used to infer a model of occupants’ manual override heating events based on indoor and outdoor environmental factors. The results showed that occupants manually override their programmed heating events and indoor temperature is the main factor influencing the override events. This study is the first model of manual override heating events developed for UK dwellings. …

Evaluation Of Heavy- And Medium-Duty On-Road Vehicle Emissions In California's South Coast Air Basin, Molly J. Haugen, Gary A. Bishop, Arvind Thiruvengadam, Daniel K. Carder

Fuel Efficiency Automobile Test Publications

Emission measurements were collected from heavy-duty (HDVs) and medium-duty vehicles (MDVs) at the Peralta weigh station long-term measurement site near Anaheim, CA in 2017. Two Fuel Efficiency Automobile Test units sampled elevated and ground-level exhaust vehicles totaling 2,315 measurements. HDVs (1844 measurements) exhibited historical reductions in fuel specific oxides of nitrogen (NO_x) from the 2008 measurements (55%) with increased use of exhaust gas recirculation and selective catalytic reduction systems. However, as these technologies have aged, the in-use benefits have declined. Infrared %opacity measurements of tailpipe soot decreased 14% since 2012 with increased diesel particulate filter (DPF) use, DPF …

The Story Of Ever Diminishing Vehicle Tailpipe Emissions As Observed In The Chicago, Il Area, Gary A. Bishop, Molly J. Haugen

Fuel Efficiency Automobile Test Publications

The University of Denver has collected on-road fuel specific vehicle emissions measurements in the Chicago area since 1989. This nearly 30 year record illustrates the large reductions in light-duty vehicle tailpipe emissions and the remarkable improvements in emissions control durability to maintain low emissions over increasing periods of time. Since 1989 fuel specific carbon monoxide (CO) emissions have been reduced by an order of magnitude and hydrocarbon (HC) emissions by more than a factor of 20. Nitric oxide (NO) emissions have only been collected since 1997 but have seen reductions of 79%. This has increased the skewness of the emissions …

Revisit Lynwood, Ca: On-Road Remote Sensing Of Automobile Emissions In The Lynwood, Ca: 2018, Gary A. Bishop

Fuel Efficiency Automobile Test Publications

No abstract provided.

Evaluation Of Emissions Benefits Of Federal Reformulated Gasoline Versus Conventional Gasoline, Gary A. Bishop, S. Kent Hoekman, Amber Broch

Fuel Efficiency Automobile Test Publications

No abstract provided.

Automated Identification Of Digital Evidence Across Heterogeneous Data Resources, Hussam J Mohammed

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics Theses

Digital forensics has become an increasingly important tool in the fight against cyber and computer-assisted crime. However, with an increasing range of technologies at people’s disposal, investigators find themselves having to process and analyse many systems with large volumes of data (e.g., PCs, laptops, tablets, and smartphones) within a single case. Unfortunately, current digital forensic tools operate in an isolated manner, investigating systems and applications individually. The heterogeneity and volume of evidence place time constraints and a significant burden on investigators. Examples of heterogeneity include applications such as messaging (e.g., iMessenger, Viber, Snapchat, and WhatsApp), web browsers (e.g., Firefox and …

Effect Of Exercise Therapy On Established And Emerging Circulating Biomarkers In Patients With Heart Failure: A Systematic Review And Meta-Analysis, Melissa J. Pearson, Nicola King, Neil A. Smart

School of Biomedical Sciences

No abstract provided.

Contesting Early Childhood Professional Identities: A Cross-National Discussion, Sonja Arndt, Mathias Urban, Colette Murray, Kylie Smith, Beth Swadener, Tomas Ellegaard

Articles

In this collective article, the authors explore constructions of early childhood practitioners and how they disconnect and reconnect in a global neo-liberal education policy context. The contributions to the conversation provide windows into shifting professional identities across five national contexts: New Zealand, the USA, Ireland, Australia and Denmark. The authors ask who benefits from the notion of distinct professional identities, linked to early childhood education as locally and culturally embedded practice. They conceptualize teachers’ shifting subjectivities, drawing on Kristeva’s philosophical conception of identity as constantly in construction, open and evolving. Arguments for the urgency to counter the global uniformity machine, …

Volume 27, Issue 3, Winter 2018-19, Office Of Communications, Illinois Wesleyan University

Illinois Wesleyan University Magazine, 2018-present

INSIDE THIS ISSUE
VOLUME 27 | NUMBER 3 | WINTER 2018-19

ON OUR COVER: A breakthrough moment inspired Lisa Mishra ’15 to put her career on hold and pursue a future in the music industry. Portrait photo by Jason Reblando. Digital illustration by Gary Schwartz.
14 Homecoming 2018 Illinois Wesleyan celebrated 100 years of Homecoming at “A Century of Celebration,” with many alumni and friends returning to campus for the annual tradition Oct. 5-7, 2018.
16 Leap of Faith Music has always been a way of life for Lisa Mishra ’15, but a breakthrough moment launched a new career for …

Mathematics For Engineering Students In The 'Dual System': Assistance In Study Start-Up And Conduct, Katja Susanne Derr

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics Theses

One major characteristic of the transition from secondary to tertiary education is the high heterogeneity of students’ knowledge. In STEM-programmes, knowledge gaps in basic mathematics are considered one risk factor regarding graduation. One approach to this problem is the provision of preparatory courses in mathematics. The purpose of this mixed methods evaluation study was to identify factors supporting “at risk” students’ successful pre-course participation and transition to university. This issue was addressed using quantitative and qualitative evaluations carried out with six cohorts of engineering students at Baden-Wuerttemberg Cooperative State University Mannheim. Using the theory of self-regulated learning as a theoretical …

An Investigation Into The Impact Of Visual-Spatial Difficulties On Learning Geometry, Sridhar Nagubandi

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics Theses

This thesis reports the findings of my study of students with visual-spatial deficits in my specialist school in the city of New York. It is comprised of a pilot study, mathematical interviews, and interventions with students and teachers. This study is qualitative and primarily uses case studies to explain the interventions with both the students and the teachers. The study is made up of interventions with two students, and interventions with several teachers who work in my specialist K-12 school which includes both primary and secondary school teachers. Since very little research has been conducted in this field to this …