Digital Commons Network^™

Assessment For Mild Cognitive Impairment: Striving For Best Practice, Julie Leigh Dalmasso

Dissertations

This dissertation is a series of three studies aimed at determining the best assessment practices for mild cognitive impairment (MCI) that can employed by speech-language pathologists (SLPs). The first study was non-experimental and descriptive examining whether three commonly used assessment instruments yielded similar categorical results. The data were analyzed to determine whether the Eight-Item Interview to Differentiate Aging and Dementia (AD8), the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), and the Cognitive-Linguistic Quick Test (CLQT) identified the same participants from a neurotypical sample as having cognitive deficits. Very little agreement was found amongst the three tools.

Study two was modified to include two …

Crossing Linguistic Borders: Teaching Writing Skills In Two Languages To Translators-In-Training, Gabriel Gonzalez Nunez

Writing and Language Studies Faculty Publications

This paper argues that linguistic borders are cultural borders without sharp lines of demarcation. They become a middle space where cultural and linguistic elements from two different cultures meld into an interculture. One of the traits of this interculture as found in Brownsville, Texas, is a high incidence of natural bilingualism. A number of naturally bilingual students walk into translation classes at UTRGV. They have a basic building block for becoming translators, which is their ability to switch back and forth between languages. Other important translator competences include the ability to write professionally in at least two languages. This ability …

An Analysis Of Rehearsed Speech Characteristics On The Oral Proficiency Interview—Computer (Opic), Gwyneth Elaine Gates

Theses and Dissertations

The ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines identify memorized words and phrases as a hallmark of novice-level speech. For this reason, research by Cox (2017) found rehearsed content to be a major hindrance to interviewees being rated at higher sublevels on the Oral Proficiency Interview-computer (OPIc). To further investigate, an analysis of these memorized segments to determine patterns of lexico-grammatical and discursive features was conducted. In this study, researchers utilized a Praat analysis to compare prosodic features (specifically, mean length of utterance, number of silent pauses, and articulation rate) of speech segments marked as memorized and those which were not. A qualitative analysis …

Evaluating The Effectiveness Of A Korean Heritage-Speaking Interpreter, Yoonjoo Lee

Theses and Dissertations

The U.S. is a country of immigrants who are non-native speakers of English (NNS), yet its legal system is not always in the favor of them. One of the issues for the NNSs is not being provided with proficient interpreters in legal settings such as police interrogations or courtrooms. There are times when some NNSs are offered qualified interpreters or translators, but others are provided with heritages speakers of needed languages in the local area. The heritages speakers are often thought to have good proficiency in languages, but unfortunately thats not always the case. To investigate the need for qualified …

A Case Study On The Use Of Best Practices Within The Mri Program In A Midwest School District, Maureen M. Green

Dissertations

The ability to read proficiently is a comprehensive skill necessary for success at all academic levels. Students who consistently read below grade level continue to struggle throughout their school years with little chance of recovery. The administrative leaders of the Ocean View School District (a pseudonym) noticed a decline in reading scores and recognized a need for a significant shift in its instructional practices to reach its struggling readers. The purpose of this study allowed school leaders an opportunity to investigate the effectiveness of the Gradual Release of Responsibility (GRR) reading strategy within the structure of the Missouri Reading Initiative …

Purposeful Integration Of Literacy And Science Instruction In A 4th Grade Immersion Program, Emily Nicole Overvliet

Theses and Dissertations

Though learning content in a second language (L2) requires additional time, students in immersion classes are expected to keep up with the curricular pace of traditional classes. One possible way to secure sufficient time for both language and science content learning is to integrate language arts instruction with core curricular content. This action research study investigated the effectiveness of purposefully integrating literacy instruction with the Utah Core Standards for science with 53 fourth-grade French partial immersion students in Utah. The purpose of this study was to discover how such a model might affect students' French reading skills, science knowledge, and …

The New World, Digested: Anthropophagy And Consumption In Abel Posse's El Largo Atardecer Del Caminante, Adam Points Wilson

Theses and Dissertations

The present thesis uses as its primary source of inspiration Argentine author Abel Posse's El largo atardecer del caminante (1992), which boasts the historically-based, unconventional Spanish conquistador, Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, as its main protagonist and narrator. I explore the juxtaposition of two opposing forms of metaphorical consumption in the novel. To highlight the first, I apply to the fictional Cabeza de Vaca the general concept of antropofagia cultural, or "cultural cannibalism," as described by Brazilian writer Oswald de Andrade in his "Manifesto Antropófago" (1928). I specifically examine the symbolic development of Posse's Cabeza de Vaca as the …

The Effects Of A Social Communication Intervention On The Correct Production Of Emotion Words For Children With Language Impairment, Julia Vincent Hetherton

Theses and Dissertations

Many school-age children with language impairment (LI) have difficulties with aspects of social and emotional learning. This study was structured to evaluate one aspect of the effectiveness of a social communication intervention, the appropriate production of emotion words. Four school-aged children with LI participated in 20 sessions of story-based intervention targeting understanding and usage of emotion-based words. Emotions targeted included the emotion word categories of happiness, sadness, anger, fear, surprise, and disgust. Because the knowledge of the emotion word categories varied from child to child, each child had different target words. The percentage of correct production of targeted emotion …

Cultural Differences In Russian And English Magazine Advertising: A Pragmatic Approach, Emily Kay Furner

Theses and Dissertations

Many American companies looking to increase sales and achieve growth targets consider expanding the reach of their product lines to other countries. However, expansion on a global scale often requires much trial and error as English-speaking companies try to market their goods to a foreign audience. In order to ease this process, localization experts are often hired to "localize" or change advertisements in order to make them more culturally relevant to consumers. Because the field of localization is relatively new, there is little research done on the degree and extent to which advertisements are localized. The purpose of this study …

Implementing Multisensory Techniques When Teaching Letter Knowledge, Franciska Karpovich

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Small-group interventions involving multisensory techniques when teaching letter knowledge to Kindergarten students in the English language have not been researched. It is important to research the use of multisensory techniques in small-group instructional efforts when teaching letter knowledge because letter knowledge contributes to students’ gaining reading abilities; and, reading abilities, in turn, contribute to students’ academic success (Gellert & Elbro, 2017; Huang & Konold, 2014; Musti-Rao & Cartledge, 2007). The purpose of this quantitative quasi-experimental study was to determine whether small group instruction involving multisensory techniques had an impact on Kindergarten students’ letter knowledge. The study divided 30 Kindergarten students …

Promoting Appropriately Engaged Behavior In The Classroom With Student Self-Monitoring And Teacher Feedback, Julia Jensen

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Student engagement in classroom activities promotes deeper learning and higher academic achievement, while noncompliant-disruptive behavior can lead to negative indicators. Acknowledging the need to support students whose conduct falls into the latter category, schools have implemented proactive behavioral systems in various educational contexts. Within one particular approach, School Wide Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (SWPBS), teachers and staff members employ specific strategies that promote positive student-adult relationships. The current study made use of one manifestation of the Check In, Check Out (CICO) system by providing a Daily Behavior Report Card (DBRC) that included goals related to maintaining eye contact and …

Increasing Chinese Character Recognition Using Incremental Rehearsal With A Morphological Component, Lan Chen

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

In Chinese language learning, knowledge of character- and word- morphology has facilitated learning to read and write Chinese characters. Furthermore, the implementation of Incremental Rehearsal with a morphological component (IRM) has been found to effectively increase children’s Chinese character recognition. This study investigated the effects of IRM as an intervention in increasing Chinese character recognition for three level 3 Chinese language learners (ages 9-12) in a non-profit school, using an A-B single case design. The results indicated that the implementation of the IRM successfully contributed to increasing Chinese character recognition for all three participants. In addition, there was an upward …

Play On Words: Assessing The Influence Of Language Context On Repetitive Speech In Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Cassidy L. Vanzuiden

Honors Capstones

This study explored whether language structure impacts repetitive speech use in children with ASD. Five children with ASD were analyzed for the frequency and type of repetitive speech used in two differing tasks: storytelling (more-structured) and play-based (less-structured). Participants produced less repetitive speech during the storytelling task and no notable differences in the types of repetitive speech were observed.

Murky Water, Fluid, And The Borderlands Of Language: An Exploration Of Toni Morrison’S Beloved, Julia K. Hall

Honors Theses

Centered on Toni Morrison's Beloved and her process of writing the novel, this thesis links the crossing of a river, the birthing of a child, and the creation of a text. By drawing upon theories of composition, motherhood, and genre theory, this exploration of Beloved balances discussion of writing process, genre, and textual analysis. Buttressed by a complimentary text, Gloria Anzaldúa’s Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza, the connection between creation of identity and body through the gestation period and birthing of a text is reflected in Morrison’s own process. The revolutionary splash Beloved made in the field of literary scholarship—and …

Evidence In Online Political Discourse: How Everyday Citizens Argue About Politics On Social Media, Diane Leverich

Honors Theses

This thesis project examines evidence use and participatory dynamics in political conversations on the social networking site Reddit.com. Reddit.com is a network of user-created, interest-based forums in which users, or Redditors, engage in discourse with others about any topic of their interest. I selected the politically-motivated forum, or subreddit, r/PoliticalDiscussion for examination and collected 1,000 of its most recent conversations, or threads, to compose a data corpus. I read, categorized, and analyzed these conversations in terms of how Redditors participated in the subreddit and how they incorporated evidence into their discussions of politics. Two rounds of qualitative data coding revealed …

Re-Painting The Lion: Female Transgression And Authorial Reincarnation In The Works Of Marie De France And Jane Austen, Katherine Rachel Mccaffery

Honors Theses

In this thesis, I argue that Marie de France and Jane Austen transgress social and gender norms in their writings and participate in a process of female authorial reincarnation; through using their voices, these female authors challenge the dominant patriarchal temporal narrative. In Chapter One I explore the Lais of Marie de France, focusing on her anonymity as an author and the implications of her stories as a rejection of the role of women in traditional chivalric romance. Chapter Two deals with Jane Austen’s life, specifically how little we really know about it, and the often overlooked, transgressive aspects of …

Do Normative And Pathological Personality Traits Overlap? Exploratory And Confirmatory Factor Analyses Of The Neo-Pi-3 And Pid-5, Lisa Eileen Stone

Honors Theses

Historically, personality disorders have been conceptualized as qualitatively distinct clinical syndromes, based on operational criteria. Consistent with this model, ten distinct set personality disorder criteria are outlined in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). However, debate persists about the clinical utility of this categorical model, with many (Krueger, et al.) researchers supporting a dimensional model that focuses on pathological levels of normative personality traits.

An exploratory factor analysis (De Fruyt et al., 2013) of the NEO Personality Inventory-3 (NEOPI-3; Costa & McCrae, 2010) and The Personality Inventory for DSM-5 (PID-5; Krueger, Derringer, …

Culturally Sensitive Diabetic Group Education, Kelly Marie Flores

Doctoral Projects

This study assessed the effectiveness of a culturally sensitive type 2 diabetes group education program delivered to Hispanic women in Merced County. Design: A pre-test post-test design. Purposeful sampling was used. Fifteen Hispanic women from a Merced County outpatient clinic were invited to participate in a culturally relevant group education workshop over a 6-week period. Four (N=4) women accepted the invitation, completed the educational workshop, and participated in the assessments. Topics discussed in the education sessions included: (1) diabetic diet, (2) exercise, (3) blood sugar monitoring, (4) medication, and (5) preventative health. A knowledge check was completed by …

Enhancing Elderly Advance Care Planning Experience At A Primary Care Clinic, Oi Shan Wong

Doctoral Projects

The purpose of the project was to examine if the identification of readiness for an advance care planning (ACP) discussion of elderly participants would enhance the outcomes of participants' satisfaction, improve the likelihood of having an ACP discussion and increase the completion rates of an advance directive (AD) document after an office visit.

Forty-four elderly participants, who met the selection criteria, were recruited from a primary clinic in Northern California from October 1, 2017 to December 31, 2017 (Female, n =28). All participants were randomly assigned to either an intervention group (n= 22) or a control group ( …

Our Rising Sea Of Islands: Pan-Pacific Regionalism In The Age Of Climate Change, Katerina Teaiwa

Pacific Studies

"Both Oceania Rising and the Climate Warriors represent postcolonial, antihegemonic movements that are grounded in contemporary customs, realities, and cultural identities, while simultaneously championing broader regional identities and unifying concerns. This essay tentatively explores these twenty-first century expressions of a shared Oceania in relation to earlier unifying concepts such as those expressed by the late Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara (1997) and Professor Epeli Hau‘ofa (1994)."

Vol. 41 No. 1/2 (2018): Pacific Studies Front Matter, The Jonathan Nāpela Center For Hawaiian And Pacific Islands Studies

Pacific Studies

Front Matter for the Vol. 41, No 1/2-Apr/Aug 2018 edition of the Pacific Studies Journal.

Unterstützung Oder Dienstleistung: German Exchange Students’ Perceptions Of Student Support Services After Studying Abroad In The United States, Matthew Todd Dean

LSU Master's Theses

As Germany seeks to compete in the international higher education market, German universities are rethinking their approach to the services provided to students. As predicted by the theory of academic capitalism, this competition is poised to force universities to consider student services as both a marketing tool and alternate stream of revenue. This study explores German students’ perceptions of student support services. Through qualitative interviews with German students who have studied abroad in the United States, the author examines their perceptions of the services offered to them by universities and third party affiliates. Emergent themes are illustrative of understaffing and …

What Must A Lecturer/Instructor (Teacher) Be Able To Do To Inspire Entrepreneurship And Business Students?, Hely Westerholm, Ph.D., Pirjo Takanen-Körperich, Ph.D.

International Journal for Business Education

This paper discusses what a lecturer/instructor (teacher) must be able to do to inspire entrepreneurship and business students. Entrepreneurship, particularly start‐up business, has become a top priority in national government policies due to its ability to drive creativity, innovation, competitiveness,
employment and growth. The goal is not to make the students rush to become entrepreneurs or business‐oriented professionals but rather provide them with tools that enable realistic self‐evaluations and learn to recognize different opportunities around them. The study seeks to define the skill sets that the inspiring entrepreneurship and business teachers consider essential to their work. Teachers expressed their views …

Safe Passage To The End Of Earth, Gregory Martin Chandler

English Theses & Dissertations

Safe Passage to the End of Earth is representative of my work as a poet and my ideas about the world. It’s broken down into four sections that approach the world from different perspectives. Each section reflects my interests mostly independent of one another, though they connect thematically. The order of the sections, and the order of the poems within the sections, reflects what I felt was the strongest sense of motion from one idea to the next, beginning with a poem that touches on many of the themes in a single page and moving through politics, history, religion, and …

Mind, Rationality, And Cognition: An Interdisciplinary Debate, N. Chater, T. Felin, D. C. Funder, G. Gigerenzer, J. J. Koenderink, J. I. Krueger, D. Noble, S. A. Nordli, M. Oaksford, Barry Schwartz, K. E. Stanovich, P. M. Todd

Psychology Faculty Works

This article features an interdisciplinary debate and dialogue about the nature of mind, perception, and rationality. Scholars from a range of disciplines—cognitive science, applied and experimental psychology, behavioral economics, and biology—offer critiques and commentaries of a target article by Felin, Koenderink, and Krueger (2017): “Rationality, Perception, and the All-Seeing Eye,” Psychonomic Bulletin & Review. The commentaries raise a number of criticisms and issues concerning rationality and the all-seeing-eye argument, including the nature of judgment and reasoning, biases versus heuristics, organism–environment relations, perception and situational construal, equilibrium analysis in economics, efficient markets, and the nature of empirical observation and the scientific …

"Through Me Tell The Story": A New Historical Analysis Of Bob Dylan As A Nobel Laureate, Abby Mangel

Theses

Bob Dylan's receipt of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2016 for "for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition" is perhaps the strongest validation for New Historicism as a method of literary analysis. The individual puzzle pieces of Dylan's postmodern rock poems are themselves little bits of history, but combined within the context of the massive paradigm shifts of the 1960s, they become something new and entirely relevant to the nonstop turmoil of contemporary life in America.

Candidate Statements For President, President-Elect, Secretary, And Librarian

Faculty Senate: Index

No abstract provided.

Mcnair Messenger- Spring 2018, Mcnair Staff

McNair Messenger

McNair Scholars Program

Cognitive Fusion And Post-Trauma Functioning In Veterans: Examining The Mediating Roles Of Emotion Dysregulation, Daniel W. Cox, Thomas C. Motl, A. Myfanwy Bakker, Rachael A. Lunt

Education, Health & Behavior Studies Faculty Publications

When cognitively fused, people have difficulty accepting and clearly perceiving their internal experiences. Following trauma, emotional non-acceptance and emotional non-clarity have been associated with post-trauma functioning. The aim of the present study was to integrate theory and research on cognitive fusion and posttrauma functioning to evaluate a theory-based model in which emotion dysregulation—specifically, emotional non-acceptance and emotional non-clarity—mediated the association between cognitive fusion and post-trauma functioning in a veteran sample. Participants were 149 veterans with a history of military-related trauma. Veterans completed measures of cognitive fusion, emotion dysregulation, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, and life satisfaction. Overall, emotion dysregulation and …

Detect Rumor And Stance Jointly By Neural Multi-Task Learning, Jing Ma, Wei Gao, Kam-Fai Wong

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

In recent years, an unhealthy phenomenon characterized as the massive spread of fake news or unverified information (i.e., rumors) has become increasingly a daunting issue in human society. The rumors commonly originate from social media outlets, primarily microblogging platforms, being viral afterwards by the wild, willful propagation via a large number of participants. It is observed that rumorous posts often trigger versatile, mostly controversial stances among participating users. Thus, determining the stances on the posts in question can be pertinent to the successful detection of rumors, and vice versa. Existing studies, however, mainly regard rumor detection and stance classification as …