Digital Commons Network^™

“Whither Then I Cannot Say”: Epistemological Uncertainty And Tolkien’S Transnational Myth, Mitchell Kooh

Laurier Undergraduate Journal of the Arts

No abstract provided.

Auditory Distraction On Visual Translation: Language Interference In Spanish-English Bilinguals, Violet A. Young

Digital Repository: Showcase of Undergraduate Research Excellence

No abstract provided.

Auditory Distraction On Visual Translation: Language Interference In Spanish-English Bilinguals, Violet A. Young

Digital Repository: Showcase of Undergraduate Research Excellence

No abstract provided.

Re-Discovering Brazilian Literary History: The Case For Translation, Martín L. Gaspar

Spanish Faculty Research and Scholarship

No abstract provided.

粵東閩語合口介音的保留及其與相鄰方言點的比較, Yuen Yan Hui

Dissertations from all years

過往一直有不少音韻研究指出合口介音的消失是漢語方言發展的普遍現象，屬東南方言的閩語亦是其中一例，可惜閩系方言的開合口演變情況鮮為人所提及。本文把前人探討北方方言合口音消失的調查方法用到閩語裡，比較閩方言中不同分支對合口音的保留情況。閩語主要可分為四個支流，是為閩東、閩北、閩南以及粵東閩語。本文在各個分支中選取了代表地區，前三個分支的代表方言點分別為建甌、福州和廈門。而由於粵東閩語的內部差異是本文的討論重點，故是次調查共選取了三個在今音上有口音差異的地區以便比較分析，這些地區為汕頭、揭陽、潮陽和海豐。漢語方言合口音消失較多表現在的果攝、蟹攝、止攝、山攝、臻攝、宕攝和曾攝，本文從當中的六攝中選取了合共十個韻部中的例字，對閩東、閩北及閩南的代表地區今音做了例字記音表，並比較分析記音結果。記音結果發現，閩東地區對合口音的保留較其他地區的閩語齊全。此外，我們從是次記音亦看見一些閩方言的語音特色。

又，粵東閩語的韻母存在很多的內部差異，當中包括了數個合口介音的韻母。本文將分析及闡述這些合口韻的在韻腹及韻尾的差異，嘗試探討粵東閩語的存古情況。

Beyond Big Bird, Binders, And Bayonets: Humor And Visibility Among Connected Viewers Of The 2012 Us Presidential Debates, Kevin Driscoll, Alex Leavitt, Kristen L. Guth, François Bar, Aalok Mehta

Communication Faculty Publications

During the 2012 US presidential debates, more than five million connected viewers turned to social media to respond to the broadcast and talk politics with one another. Using a mixed-methods approach, this study examines the prevalence of humor and its relationship to visibility among connected viewers live-tweeting the debates. Based on a content analysis of tweets and accounts, we estimate that approximately one-fifth of the messages sent during the debates consisted of strictly humorous content. Using retweet frequency as a proxy for visibility, we found a positive relationship between the use of humor and the visibility of individual tweets. Not …

The Resurgence Of American Nativism In The Early-Twentieth Century And Its Effects On Industrial Hemp Production In The United States, Roman King

Master's Theses or Doctor of Nursing Practice

Congress passed the Marihuana Tax Act on August 2, 1937, which officially made it illegal to handle any form of Cannabis sativa L. without adhering to mandatory taxes and registration forms. The American cultivation of industrial hemp (fibrous, non-psychoactive C. sativa L.), became non-existent by 1958 due to the strict penalties associated with the 1937 Tax Act. Industrial hemp served as a staple of American life from the arrival of the first English colonists in North America up until the textile conquest of King Cotton in the early-nineteenth century. Despite the rise of cotton and the importation of cheap foreign …

Diversity In The College Composition Classroom: A Case Study On Second-Language Writers And Early College Entrants, Moises I. De Lima

Master's Theses or Doctor of Nursing Practice

Student populations in post-secondary institutions in the United States have increasingly become more diverse in the past several decades. This diversity includes students from distinct ethnic groups, of various linguistic backgrounds, and from a wide age range. English as a second language students have largely populated these classes, creating an exigency for modifications in the political, social, administrative, and pedagogical practices of these universities and colleges. Some higher education institutions have also diversified their student body by creating early acceptance programs for gifted students. Like second-language students, they might too present peculiarities that require changes in the way the university …

Including Students With Special Needs In A Mainstream Classroom In Cameroon, Elie Tcheimegni

Master's Theses or Doctor of Nursing Practice

This qualitative study used a survey research design to collect perception data from ten general educators from Northern Cameroon to examine the attitudes and instructional efficacy of the regular education teacher towards the inclusion of learning disabled students in the Northern part of Cameroon in grades 9 to 12. The findings of this study indicated that there is a need to train general education teachers for inclusion. Participants believe general education teachers need supports, logistics, professional development and training in inclusion practices. They all mentioned teachers need training, support and resources. Teachers should possess the skills that facilitate all learning …

Fostering Giftedness And Creativity: Implementing Engineering By Design In Kuwait, Nathan Mentzer, Philip A. Reed, Meshari Alnouri, Mohammad Barbarji

STEMPS Faculty Publications

The article offers information on a partnership between the International Technology & Engineering Educators Association (ITEEA) and the Sabah Al Ahmad Center for Giftedness and Creativity (SACGC) to support innovation and design education. The partnership is aimed towards the implementation of the Engineering byDesign (EbD) curriculum and contribute towards building a Kuwaiti society that fosters giftedness and creativity.

The Effect Of Increased Quizzing On Retention Of Material By Histology Laboratory Students, R. J. Nogrady

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

In traditional approaches to teaching, examinations and quizzes have been considered secondary activities, designed to assess and motivate learning, but not generally as teaching tools in themselves (Roediger and Butler, 2011). However, abundant psychological research in laboratory settings indicates that the act of taking a quiz or examination on the material can directly enhance retention of that material in ways which are distinct from and often more effective than restudying of the material. This phenomenon is now referred to as the testing effect. The testing effect hypothesis asserts that (1) repeated retrieval attempts have a longer lasting effect on retention …

Recurrence Quantification Models Of Human Conversational Grounding Processes: Informing Natural Language Human-Computer Interaction, Clayton D. Rothwell

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Human-human communication is a coordinated dance (Clark, 1996) that requires each participant to consider the other participants. The majority of this coordination centers on the conversational grounding process that develops and maintains the common ground, or shared understanding between the individuals (Clark and Schaefer, 1989). Conversational grounding is also a crucial process for human-computer interaction using language-based methods, such as spoken dialogue systems. Previous work has tied grounding processes to the performance outcomes in collaborative tasks (Reitter and Moore, 2014; Gergle et al., 2013, 2004; Clark and Krych, 2004), making it a high priority for increasing capabilities of spoken dialogue …

Slim Embedding Layers For Recurrent Neural Language Models, Zhongliang Li

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Recurrent neural language (RNN) models are the state-of-the-art method for language modeling. When the vocabulary size is large, the space taken to store the model parameters becomes the bottleneck for the use of these type of models. We introduce a simple space compression method that stochastically shares the structured parameters at both the input and output embedding layers of RNN models to significantly reduce the size of model parameters, but still compactly represents the original input and the output embedding layers. The method is easy to implement and tune. Experiments on several data sets show that the new method achieves …

L2 Teachers' Efficacy: The Impact Of Professional Development, Nino Jakhaia

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This quasi-experimental explanatory sequential mixed-methods study examined the impact of a 25-hour professional development on English as a foreign language (L2) teachers’ sense of efficacy in writing instruction in the country of Georgia. It also explored the links between teachers’ beliefs about teaching writing, self-efficacies in instructional strategies, and the professional development. A convenience sampling technique was used to select teachers for participation in the professional development. The quantitative data was collected through the teacher efficacy scale. The qualitative methods in the form of semi-structured questions about efficacy were used to enhance the data by examining teachers’ perceptions of the …

A Righteousness Housed In The Body: The Conception And Division Of Kings' Bodies In Early Medieval Northwestern Literature, Sharon Miller Wofford

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines how the bodies of kings in medieval Irish, Anglo-Saxon, and Norse literature demonstrate sacral kingship, a theory which links the prosperity of a people to the strength of the king’s relationship with the divine. I argue that the practice of collecting the heads of English kings as relics, particularly the Northumbrian warrior-kings Edwin and Oswald, is due to an understanding of the king's bodies as a source of power and "luck." I put the dispersal of the heads of Kings Edwin and Oswald in conversation with the work of Andrew Reynolds on deviant burial customs in Anglo-Saxon …

Perceptions Of University Students Toward Bilingualism In Fribourg, Barcelona, And Oxford, Madison Densmore

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This master's thesis explores university students’ perceptions toward bilingualism and foreign language teaching in two bilingual, European communities—Fribourg, Switzerland, and Barcelona, Spain—and at the University of Mississippi in monolingual-dominant Oxford, Mississippi. This research was conducted over a period of about nine months and includes both qualitative and quantitative data: twenty-four interviews as well as three online questionnaires which were made available in the following five languages: French, German, Catalan, Castilian Spanish, and English. During the interviews and on the Qualtrics questionnaires, students were asked to share their perceptions about language, their communities, and foreign language teaching. For clarity purposes, although …

Effects Of Fixed And Malleable Views Of Intelligence And Attribution Of Controllability On Teacher Affects, Gary Beard

PCOM Psychology Dissertations

The classroom is a dynamic social setting where teachers respond affectively to student failure. Divergent affective reactions toward learning and achievement occur in teachers with fixed and malleable views of intelligence, which impact students’ self-esteem and expectations for future success. The present study explored teacher and student variables related to emotive classroom expression toward test failures of boys. View of intelligence as fixed or malleable, attribution of controllability (effort & ability) and student condition were measured and examined in relation to the affects frustration, sympathy, positive or negative feedback and expectations for future failure. Attributions of controllability (effort & ability) …

Hic 2100g : Introduction To The Health & Medical Humanities, Academic Affairs

Approved Course Proposals

No abstract provided.

Microclinic International Social Network Behavioral Health Intervention In Mongolia, Kalli A. Beasley

Theses and Dissertations--Public Health (M.P.H. & Dr.P.H.)

Diabetes is a chronic communicable disease that is projected by 2030 to be the seventh leading cause of death worldwide. In Mongolia diabetes and cardiovascular disease are the number one reason for disability-adjusted life years and trends of diabetes is starting to be observed in the poorer populations. Diabetes in countries like Mongolia are extremely costly to treat using insulin, costing $200 USD per month while the average annual income sits only at $1,466.85 USD. Mongolia has a total population of 2,959,000 and half of its population resides in the capital city of Ulaanbaatar. 60% of residents in capital live …

Unending Mazes: Gendered Inequalities, Drug Use, And State Interventions In Rural Appalachia, Lesly-Marie Buer

Theses and Dissertations--Anthropology

Prescription opioids are associated with rising rates of overdose deaths and hepatitis C and HIV infection in the US, including in rural Central Appalachia. Yet there is a dearth of published ethnographic research examining rural opioid use. The aim of this dissertation is to document the gendered inequalities that situate women’s encounters with substance abuse treatment as well as additional state interventions targeted at women who use drugs. These results are based on ethnographic fieldwork completed from 2013 to 2016 and centered around one county seat in rural Central Appalachia. Data are ascertained through semi-structured interviews with women who have …

Splitting Hair: Reviving The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical In The 1970s, Bryan M. Vandevender

Faculty Journal Articles

When Hair premiered on Broadway in 1968, the musical garnered attention

for its reflection the current cultural moment. Critics acknowledged

this congruence of form, content, and zeitgeist as the production’s greatest

asset. This alignment with the Vietnam era proved a liability nine

years later when Hair received its first Broadway revival, particularly

when the musical’s authors replaced many of the libretto’s cultural references

with allusions to the 1970s, further illuminating the musical’s

inherently time-bound qualities.

The Relationship Between Memorable Messages And Identity Construction, Raphaela P. Barros Campbell

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

A qualitative analysis is reported here, in which 22 international students were interviewed about their overall experiences studying abroad, as well as memorable messages received and the context in which those were communicated. Scholars like Larson and Gill (2017) and Alvesson (2010) have focused on the role communication plays in constructing identity. With that in mind, Knapp et al.’s (1981) concept of memorable messages informs how specific messages influence individuals’ sense of who they are. This study expands knowledge on the relationship between memorable messages and international students’ identity construction, focusing on the impact of messages exchanged before and during …

Generating Classification Rules From Training Samples, Arun D. Kulkarni

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

In this paper, we describe an algorithm to extract classification rules from training samples using fuzzy membership functions. The algorithm includes steps for generating classification rules, eliminating duplicate and conflicting rules, and ranking extracted rules. We have developed software to implement the algorithm using MATLAB scripts. As an illustration, we have used the algorithm to classify pixels in two multispectral images representing areas in New Orleans and Alaska. For each scene, we randomly selected 10 per cent of the samples from our training set data for generating an optimized rule set and used the remaining 90 per cent of samples …

Midwifery Anatomized: Vesalius, Dissection, And Reproductive Authority In Early Modern Italy, Jennifer Kosmin

Faculty Journal Articles

Although Vesalius, like his contemporaries, had only extremely limited opportunities to examine or dissect the human gravid uterus, it is the image of the anatomist laying bare the (un)pregnant female body and revealing its secrets that graces the title page of the 1543 edition of De humani corporis fabrica. This essay focuses on the implications of Vesalius’s and his followers’ anatomical discoveries for the practice and professional status of early modern Italian midwives. In particular, the essay focuses on three venues in which the authority to understand the female body and the processes of reproduction were contested. A close …

Neutrosophic Operational Research - Vol. 3., Florentin Smarandache, Mohamed Abdel Basset, Victor Chang

Branch Mathematics and Statistics Faculty and Staff Publications

Foreword John R. Edwards This book is an excellent exposition of the use of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to generate data analytic insights to make evidence-based decisions, to improve productivity, and to manage cost-risk and benefitopportunity in public and private sectors. The design and the content of the book make it an up-to-date and timely reference for professionals, academics, students, and employees, in particular those involved in strategic and operational decisionmaking processes to evaluate and prioritize alternatives to boost productivity growth, to optimize the efficiency of resource utilization, and to maximize the effectiveness of outputs and impacts to stakeholders. It …

New Trends In Neutrosophic Theory And Applications Volume Ii, Florentin Smarandache, Surapati Pramanik

Branch Mathematics and Statistics Faculty and Staff Publications

Neutrosophic set has been derived from a new branch of philosophy, namely Neutrosophy. Neutrosophic set is capable of dealing with uncertainty, indeterminacy and inconsistent information. Neutrosophic set approaches are suitable to modeling problems with uncertainty, indeterminacy and inconsistent information in which human knowledge is necessary, and human evaluation is needed. Neutrosophic set theory was proposed in 1998 by Florentin Smarandache, who also developed the concept of single valued neutrosophic set, oriented towards real world scientific and engineering applications. Since then, the single valued neutrosophic set theory has been extensively studied in books and monographs introducing neutrosophic sets and its applications, …

Neutrosophic Logic: The Revolutionary Logic In Science And Philosophy -- Proceedings Of The National Symposium, Florentin Smarandache, Huda E. Khalid, Ahmed K. Essa

Branch Mathematics and Statistics Faculty and Staff Publications

The first part of this book is an introduction to the activities of the National Symposium, as well as a presentation of Neutrosophic Scientific International Association (NSIA), based in New Mexico, USA, also explaining the role and scope of NSIA - Iraqi branch. The NSIA Iraqi branch presents a suggestion for the international instructions in attempting to organize NSIA's work. In the second chapter, the pivots of the Symposium are presented, including a history of neutrosophic theory and its applications, the most important books and papers in the advancement of neutrosophics, a biographical note of Prof. Florentin Smarandache in Arabic …

Neutrosophic Multi-Criteria Decision Making, Florentin Smarandache, Jun Ye, Yanhui Guo

Branch Mathematics and Statistics Faculty and Staff Publications

The notion of a neutrosophic quadruple BCK/BCI-number is considered in the first article (“Neutrosophic Quadruple BCK/BCI-Algebras”, by Young Bae Jun, Seok-Zun Song, Florentin Smarandache, and Hashem Bordbar), and a neutrosophic quadruple BCK/BCI-algebra, which consists of neutrosophic quadruple BCK/BCI-numbers, is constructed. Several properties are investigated, and a (positive implicative) ideal in a neutrosophic quadruple BCK-algebra and a closed ideal in a neutrosophic quadruple BCI-algebra are studied. Given subsets A and B of a BCK/BCI-algebra, the set NQ(A,B), which consists of neutrosophic quadruple BCK/BCInumbers with a condition, is established. Conditions for the set NQ(A,B) to be a (positive implicative) ideal of a …

Special Issue: Neutrosophic Information Theory And Applications, Florentin Smarandache, Jun Ye

Branch Mathematics and Statistics Faculty and Staff Publications

Neutrosophiclogic,symboliclogic,set,probability,statistics,etc.,are,respectively,generalizations of fuzzy and intuitionistic fuzzy logic and set, classical and imprecise probability, classical statistics, and so on. Neutrosophic logic, symbol logic, and set are gaining significant attention in solving many real-life problems that involve uncertainty, impreciseness, vagueness, incompleteness, inconsistency, and indeterminacy. A number of new neutrosophic theories have been proposed and have been applied in computational intelligence, multiple-attribute decision making, image processing, medical diagnosis, fault diagnosis, optimization design, etc. This Special Issue gathers original research papers that report on the state of the art, as well as on recent advancements in neutrosophic information theory in soft computing, artificial intelligence, …

Special Issue : Neutrosophic Multi-Criteria Decision Making, Florentin Smarandache, Jun Ye, Yan Hui Guo

Branch Mathematics and Statistics Faculty and Staff Publications

The notion of a neutrosophic quadruple BCK/BCI-number is considered in the first article (“Neutrosophic Quadruple BCK/BCI-Algebras”, by Young Bae Jun, Seok-Zun Song, Florentin Smarandache, and Hashem Bordbar), and a neutrosophic quadruple BCK/BCI-algebra, which consists of neutrosophic quadruple BCK/BCI-numbers, is constructed. Several properties are investigated, and a (positive implicative) ideal in a neutrosophic quadruple BCK-algebra and a closed ideal in a neutrosophic quadruple BCI-algebra are studied. Given subsets A and B of a BCK/BCI-algebra, the set NQ(A,B), which consists of neutrosophic quadruple BCK/BCInumbers with a condition, is established. Conditions for the set NQ(A,B) to be a (positive implicative) ideal of a …