Digital Commons Network^™

What Is It Like To Be A Problem?, Chelsey Albert

Theses - ALL

In this thesis paper I explore the factors contributing to my current art making. I investigate motivations behind my practice in an exploration of conceptual and narrative experience that create its foundation and background.

I will notate the development and exhibit examples of my current works in relation to the past three years of MFA research. I will discuss the Arab "problem," and through five installation artworks focus on memories of situations in my family and the Pittsburgh Arab community. Throughout the paper I will include current contemporary artists working with similar media and references in social and political environments.

The Third World Women’S Alliance: History, Geopolitics, And Form, Ariane Vani Kannan

Dissertations - ALL

This dissertation focuses on the work of the Third World Women’s Alliance (TWWA), a women-of-color-led activist organization that maintained active chapters in New York City and the Bay Area between 1971-80. Drawing on archival research and qualitative interviews, I reconstruct how the group invoked, constructed, and circulated intersecting Third World histories and geopolitical analyses through political education, publications, and cultural events. In addition to this historical study, I seek to understand the ongoing presence of the TWWA in educational spaces through interviews with archivists and professors across disciplines. This project makes three contributions to the field of Rhetoric and Composition: …

Migration, Individualism And Dependency: Experiences Of Skilled Women From The Former Soviet Union In Silicon Valley, Ievgeniia Zasoba

Master's Theses

An academic dialog concerning the intersectionality of national origin, economic class and gender, as mutually constitutive elements of migration, set the context for my inquiry into the experiences of wives who are barred from paid labor by their restricted visa status. Guided by grounded theory, I conducted seventeen semi-structured qualitative interviews to examine ways in which a move to Silicon Valley under a restricted visa class changes the self-image of women, and how they evaluate this change. I found that the ambiguous agency construct of women socialized in the Soviet and post-Soviet eras facilitated their choice to migrate despite the …

Parent-Child Interaction Therapy For Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder: An Analysis Of Behavioral Patterns And Treatment Barriers, Kimberly A. Knap

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) experience difficulties with social communication and restrictive, repetitive, and stereotyped behavior patterns that place them at an increased risk for developing challenging behaviors that warrant early intervention (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). These problems are unlikely to decrease without intervention. Research indicates that parents’ involvement in behaviorally based interventions improves the functioning of children with ASD (Horner, Carr, Strain, Todd, & Reid, 2002). . Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (Eyberg & Funderburk, 2011) is an empirically supported intervention for young children with disruptive behaviors. PCIT shares similarities with numerous proven ASD treatments including caregiver involvement, structure …

Constructing And Applying Rubrics In College-Level Efl Writing Assessment In China, Chunhui Li

Theses - ALL

Assessment is a critical component in the teaching of writing and plays an important role in discovering and helping to address students’ writing difficulties. Therefore, it is essential for teachers to approach writing assessment in a reliable and valid way. Previous studies showed that assessment rubrics, used as a standard to describe performance evaluation, can help teachers effectively assess student writing. The reliability and validity of the use of rubrics for helping teachers in assessing writing fairly and improving students’ writing ability has received much research attention; however, less attention has been paid to teacher training in the area of …

Principals' Instructional Leadership In Title I Schools: A Closer Look, George Kleidon

Dissertations

The students in Title I schools remain the most vulnerable in our education system. Principals in these schools must be exceptional and well prepared. However, principals have been trained in a universal approach that is not sufficient for those who lead schools with high poverty rates as well as culturally and linguistically diverse learners. The purpose of this mixed-methods descriptive study was to gain insight from principals about instructional leadership in Title I schools. Thirty-two principals described their perceptions about the preparation, supports, and challenges necessary to develop instructional leadership, including cultural proficiency for Title I schools. The findings in …

A Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis Of The National Board For Professional Teaching Standards, Melissa Urbain

Dissertations

This research is a feminist discourse analysis of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards Five Core Propositions. The goal of this project is to shift the focus of educational discourse away from teachers’ gender and look towards their teachers’ teaching abilities as compared to the professional standards laid out in the NBPTS. It demonstrates that the national expectations placed on teachers are feminist and addresses and discredits current patriarchal discourse and policies in the field of education. This is accomplished through a close reading of the Five Core Propositions, drawing connections between the expectations in the document and the …

Landscape Mobility Of The Precontact Ohlone: An Isotopic Investigation Of Dietary Reconstruction, Landscape Mobility, And Marriage Patterns, Kelli Sullivan

Master's Theses

Marriage and post-marital residence patterns shape and define various aspects of a population’s culture. This study aims to understand the complex relationships of precontact individuals from one earthen-mound burial site, Ryan Mound (CA-ALA-329), by examining human stable isotopes to elucidate mobility patterns through time. Carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes from serial-sections of human third molars from the Ryan Mound suggest that mobility increased for males around the ages of sexual maturity for the Middle Period and Phase I of the Late Period, while females tended to be more stable in their residence, consistent with a matrilocal society. Both males and …

Early Literacy Abilities In Spanish-English Emergent Bilingual Children From Varied Dialectal Backgrounds, Antonietta Mastrota

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Hispanic population within the United States has grown to a considerable amount. The state of Florida’s population is 25% Hispanic, with projected estimates of this population continuing to grow in the coming years (Ortman & Shin, 2011). Statistics show that 28.3% of the state’s population, over the age of five, speak a language other than English at home. With this considerable number of Spanish-speakers comes the responsibility to adjust certain educational practices to best meet their needs. Literacy is an essential part of learning, and therefore assessing early literacy is an essential part to any child’s academic development.

Phonological …

De Mestizas A Indígenas: Reindigenization As A Political Strategy In Ecuador, Pamela X. Pareja

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The 1990s were a period of intense socio-economic upheaval in Ecuador, in part due to the numerous protests that would come to be known as the Levantamiento Indígena. Notoriously disenfranchised since the bloody conquest of the Americas, peoples of various Indigenous nationalities that reside within Ecuador fought for the constitutional recognition of the nation as both plurinational and multicultural, in order to secure intercultural public policies that would affect patterns of agrarian distribution, indigenous education, health, and overall representation. The prominence of the Indigenous movement and the revalorization of the Indigenous identity throughout Ecuador became an attractive vehicle for which …

Supportive Needs For Retention To Graduation Of Nursing Students In Undergraduate Programmes In Eastern Cape, Nonyaniso Trustina Sr. Nkutu

International Nursing Research Congress (INRC)

At the end of this presentation the audience will be able to describe the needs of nursing students in the undergraduate nursing programme in universities at the Eastern Cape Province South Africa.

French Land, Algerian People: Nineteenth-Century French Discourse On Algeria And Its Consequences, Paige Gulley

Voces Novae

Language is fundamental in shaping our understanding of the world we live, and as such, studies of discourse are invaluable in providing insight into the worldviews of historical actors. Though much has been written on the depiction of colonized peoples and its Oriental undertones, little has been said about the discourse on a colony itself. In examining the French discourse on Algeria in the nineteenth century, it becomes clear that the French privileged Algeria as a rich and valuable resource for France even as they decried the “backwardness” of the people of Algeria. While ignoring its inhabitants completely or discussing …

Review Of Think Big With Think Alouds: A Three-Step Planning Process That Develops Strategic Readers, Susan J. Chambre

The Language and Literacy Spectrum

In Think Big with Think Alouds: A Three-step Planning Process That Develops Strategic Readers (2017), Molly K. Ness provides classroom teachers with a detailed three-step process for developing think aloud procedures during classroom literacy instruction. The book assists teachers in identifying stopping points in narrative and expository text. Ness also includes multiple scripted think alouds with comprehensive explanations for both narrative and expository text. Additionally, practical tips for promoting student adoption of higher order thinking skills are provided in the form of sentence starters and strategy symbols. The procedures outline in Think Big with Think Alouds will empower classroom teachers …

Supporting Primary Students’ Story Writing By Including Retellings, Talk, And Drama With Strategy Instruction, Zoi A. Traga Philippakos, Sarah Munsell, Logan B. Robinson

The Language and Literacy Spectrum

Story writing and story grammar have been studied extensively in an effort to improve students’ reading comprehension. Instruction on story structure and on elements of stories can improve the writing quality of students’ papers. This paper explains a process of supporting primary-grade students’ story writing. The approach is based on strategy instruction and incorporates talk and dramatic play as ways to support the development of characters, descriptions of characters and events, and dialogue between characters. Guidelines are provided and step-by-step directions for teachers to use this work with their students.

Something Rotten: Space, Place, And The Nation In Hamlet And As You Like It, Mikaela Lafave

English MA Theses

Ecocriticism has been defined as literature that concretely concerns the environment, which can be obviously applied to those of Shakespeare’s that directly depict natural disaster. This creates a prototype of a Shakespearean Ecocritical canon. My thesis addresses the limitation of this initial definition, and applies ecocritical theory to other works by Shakespeare. Ecocriticism is no longer confined to only the natural as critics expand the field through examinations of built environments and urban interaction with the natural. This widening of the field encourages the addition of further Ecocritical Shakespeare. How can audiences see the unnatural as natural, and conversely the …

Contextualization Of Psychological Treatments For Government Health Systems In Low-Resource Settings: Group Interpersonal Psychotherapy For Caregivers Of Children With Nodding Syndrome In Uganda., Byamah B Mutamba, Brandon A Kohrt, James Okello, Janet Nakigudde, Bernard Opar, Seggane Musisi, William Bazeyo, Joop De Jong

Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences Faculty Publications

BACKGROUND: Evidence for the effectiveness of psychological treatments in low- and middle-income countries is increasing. However, there is a lack of systematic approaches to guide implementation in government health systems. The objective of this study was to address this gap by employing the Replicating Effective Programs (REP) framework to guide contextualization of a psychological treatment in the Uganda public health system for caregivers of children affected by nodding syndrome, a neuropsychiatric disorder endemic to Sub-Saharan Africa associated with high morbidity and disability.

METHODS: To contextualize a psychological treatment, we followed the four components of the REP framework: pre-conditions, pre-implementation, implementation, …

The Effectiveness Of The Keyword Method On Foreign Language Vocabulary For Students With Learning Disabilities, Jessica Anna Consiglio

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was: (a) to examine the effectiveness of the keyword mnemonic method to improve the foreign language receptive vocabulary of students with learning disabilities, (b) to examine the effectiveness of the keyword mnemonic method to improve the productive foreign language vocabulary of students with learning disabilities and (c) to evaluate student satisfaction and perceptions of the keyword mnemonic method intervention. Three seventh and eighth grade students, one male and two females, with a learning disability participated in the study. A single subject ABAB design was used. During the baseline phases students received instruction using rote memorization. …

Articulatory Patterns In Children Who Use Cochlear Implants: An Ultrasound Measure Of Velar Stop Production In Bilingual Speakers, Katherine Javier

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Coarticulation occurs in running speech when one speech sound or phoneme overlaps with another. It can be considered a result of the way we sequence and organize our articulators to efficiently produce consecutive consonants and vowels in fluent speech. Previous research has suggested that measures of coarticulation can provide insight into the maturity of the motor speech planning system (Barbier, Perrier, Ménard, Payan, Tiede, & Perkell, 2013; Zharkova & Hewlett, 2009; Zharkova, Hewlett, & Hardcastle, 2011). Speech stability has also been suggested as an indicator of motor speech maturity in previous research using ultrasound imaging of velar-vowel targets (Frisch, Maxfield, …

Mathematical Simulation And Development Of The System Of Control Of Processes Of Rectification Of Compounds In Production Of Ethyl Alcohol, Yu.Sh Avazov

Chemical Technology, Control and Management

A mathematical description of the process of rectification of multicomponent mixtures is given, and dynamic models for the operation of individual sections of a typical rectification column are obtained, and a structurally parametric synthesis of an invariant control system is performed on this basis. The generalized algorithm of process control by rectification of multicomponent mixtures is substantiated. The technique for determining the membership function by the method of pairwise comparisons is described and models for controlling the stochastic process of rectification of multicomponent mixtures based on fuzzy logic are obtained.

Methods Of Optimizing Data Processing Based On Fuzzy Correction Of Time Series Elements And Variable Identification Models, I.I Jumanov, Z.T Bekmurodov

Chemical Technology, Control and Management

The problem of optimal identification and processing of random time series (RTS) based on the use of the property of statistical, dynamic, fuzzy models is formulated. A method for the qualitative identification of RTS is proposed, including algorithms for fuzzy equations, logical conclusions, taking into account the effects of environmental factors and the nonstationarity of processes. A generalized algorithm for identifying the RTS with regulation and correction of variables values based on fuzzy logic rules, ways of searching for extrema by norms and -norms is developed. Designed tools for optimal data processing by determining the appropriate model; parametric and structural …

A Brief Look At Meaning In Graphic Design, Elise Rustine

Honors College Theses

In this exploration of meaning in design, some of the theories, such as those proposed by Ferdinand de Saussure and Charles Sanders Peirce, and the different forms meaning takes are discussed. The project takes the form of analyzing three smaller projects in which meaning was explored in a different way, including a review of semiotics in design, an examination of the differences between denotation and connotation, and the creation of a personal visual identity and the challenge of taking internalized personal meaning and communicating that visually.

Indigenous Tribes In The Brazilian Amazon: Finding A Balance Between Sustainability And Economic Development, Bernadette R. O'Donnell

Honors College Theses

The number of isolated indigenous tribes in Brazil is dropping due to a multitude of factors, including resource extraction. If these factors continue, there will be further reduction of the population of indigenous tribes which causes the loss of culture of the world’s oldest societies. This research establishes the roles that the Brazilian government, NGOs, and the international community should play to preserve indigenous tribes. The research question is: How can Brazil sustain isolated indigenous tribes in the Amazon without compromising its own economic development? The research method is the modified Delphi method which results in a consensus of experts …

Moving From Eco-Forecasts To Eco-Projections, Brian W. Miller, Jeffrey T. Morisette, Gregor W. Schuurman, Jamie K. Reaser

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Ecological models can provide estimates of future conditions that are useful for decision-making, including long-term planning and resource prioritization. However, these models often rely on assumptions about ecological relationships and trajectories, forcings (e.g., biophysical conditions), and management approaches that may not be explicitly considered. To make assumptions more transparent, disciplines such as economics, demographics, climatology, and national intelligence make a fairly clear and consistent distinction between “forecasts” and “projections”. Forecasts are typically more near-term and rely on extending existing relationships and trends to estimate the most likely future conditions; whereas projections evaluate conditions under multiple scenarios that are based on …

The New Spanish Future Subjunctive, Amy S. Orf

Conference Presentations

Previous studies of the Spanish future subjunctive all discuss the forms ending in –re, –res, –re, –remos, –reis, –ren, which resulted from the merger of the Latin future perfect indicative, perfect subjunctive, and imperfect subjunctive (Lloyd, 1987). These forms have all but disappeared from the modern language, having largely been replaced by the present subjunctive (Whitley, 2002). However, Spanish has a new future subjunctive. This presentation examines the subjunctive with ir a + infinitive constructions, as found in El Corpus de Referencia del Español Actual.

Cultural Brokering: Insights To College Career Counselors From Colleagues In Diversity Offices, Sherrill Yeaton

CUP Ed.D. Dissertations

This qualitative case study sought to capture insights from professional staff trained to serve diverse student populations in colleges to inform additional staff in better serving underrepresented students. Higher education student populations have changed drastically over the past several decades, representing greater diversity in American colleges and universities, necessitating enhanced practice in counseling and advising diverse students. The case study research sought to better understand needs of traditionally underrepresented students in 4-year predominantly White institutions (PWIs) through the lens of professional staff in diversity-focused positions within the colleges and universities. Critical race theory (CRT), sociocultural theory, and positive psychology were …

The Impact Of Vocabulary Knowledge On Nonword Judgments In Spanish-English Bilinguals, Marisa E. Leyden

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis suggests that the range of vocabulary in an individual’s lexicon has an influence on in their assessment of nonword wordlikeness. The study included thirteen Spanish-English bilinguals who participated in a language dominance questionnaire, standardized assessments of Spanish and English vocabulary knowledge, and Spanish and English wordlikeness judgment tasks. Resulting data demonstrated moderate correlations between vocabulary knowledge and performance on nonword wordlikeness judgement tasks in Spanish and English. Participants with larger lexicons appeared more tolerant of less probable nonwords, those with low phonotactic probability, while those with smaller lexicons were less accepting of nonwords with low phonotactic probability. The …

Variable Selection For Improving Predictions Of Hydrological Events, Marina G. Erechtchoukova, Marina Zistler

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Application of supervised classification to short-term predictions of hydrological events rely on data routinely collected by Conservation Authorities with high frequencies on streams and their watersheds. It implies that the quality of predictions depends on location of monitoring stations and representativeness of data sets used in the analysis. Given that application of classification algorithms requires data transformation, an attempt was made to improve the performance of these algorithms by extending the set of variables of black box models which are supplied by stream and rain gauges and include their derivatives which may carry very important information as well. The original …

Data-Driven Hybrid Approach To Short-Term Predictions Of Hydrological Events, Marina G. Erechtchoukova Prof., Peter A. Khaiter Prof., Dennis Khaiter

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Application of supervised classification to short-term forecasting of hydrological events demonstrated that combining outputs of several individual learners into a final judgement improves the accuracy of predictions and creates more robust models. Given that predictions are generated as categorical values corresponding to a class label of a future hydrological event, the ensembles perform better when they incorporate black box models which disagree on the same subsets of data. To further extend the ‘diversity of opinions’ of ensemble members, black box models of a different type can be added to an ensemble of classifiers. Given that regression methods are aimed at …

Energy Consumption Prediction For Recreation Facilities Using Hybrid Neuro-Fuzzy Inference Systems, Paul Banda, Muhammed Bhuiyan, Guomin Zhang, Andy Song

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Leisure centers are growing in popularity as health and physical fitness awareness is becoming an integral part of human society. Leisure centers consume more energy compared to most office buildings but are less studied in the area of non-residential energy consumption prediction. This work presents an energy consumption prediction effort for a leisure center using a class of two ANFIS based adaptive networks: ANFIS GP and ANFIS SC and multi-linear regression. Climatic, periodicity and energy use data collected over a period of eight months were pre-processed, normalized and split into training and testing sets before being presented to the adaptive …

A Comparison Of The Models And Methods Of Surveillance In East Germany And Northern Ireland And Their Relevance To Modern-Day Securitization Of Society, Cliodhna Pierce

Irish Communication Review

Despite increasing awareness of the rise in societal surveillance as a result of leaks by former NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden and subsequent revelations from Wikileaks, the damage of pervasive surveillance practices on the individual and on communities has yet to be measured. As John Gilliom has argued, ‘until we are able to generate sufficient research to make plausible sense of how differently situated people – welfare mothers, prisoners, students, middle-class professionals – speak of and respond to their various surveillance settings, we will be unable to devise a meaningful account of what surveillance is’ (2006, 126). Before we can examine …