Digital Commons Network^™

An Intensive Book Camp Approach To The Remediation Of Speech Sound Disorders: A Case Report, Shawn L. Nissen, Melanie E. Peris, Kristine Tanner

Faculty Publications

Background: Understanding treatment dose is essential to optimizing therapeutic frequency and intensity for speech sound disorders. Intensive therapies, known as boot camp approaches, have proven efficacious in certain speech therapy contexts such as voice disorder treatment. However, few data exist regarding intervention intensity for developmental speech sound disorders. Method: This investigation examined the effects of an intensive boot camp speech therapy approach to remediate interdental /s/ production over two consecutive days. Treatment occurred in morning and afternoon blocks for a total of 5.5 h per day. Auditory-perceptual ratings were used to evaluate /s/ productions pre-treatment, immediately post-treatment, and one week …

Using Real-Time Visual Biofeedback For Second Language Instruction, Shawn L. Nissen, Rebecca Nissen

Faculty Publications

This demonstration will illustrate how using real-time visual biofeedback, through a relatively new type of electropalatographic (EPG) sensor, might facilitate improved pronunciation for learners of a second language (L2). The manner in which the EPG sensor is created and its use to track lingua-palatal articulation patterns will be described to individuals. This presentation will also include an explanation of how a student can visualize the contact patterns of their speech using the associated instructional software. A brief tutorial on the features of the instructional software will also be explained during the “show and tell” presentation.

Investigating The Use Of The Actfl Can-Do Statements In A Self-Assessment For Student Placement In An Intensive English Program, Maria M. Summers, Troy L. Cox, Benjamin L. Mcmurry, Dan Dewey

Faculty Publications

In this study, the authors use a validation framework to evaluate the usefulness of a self-assessment instrument based on the ACTFL Can-Do Statements for student placement in an Intensive English Program. The authors evaluated (a) the design of the instrument by investigating how well the intended item difficulties aligned with the actual item difficulties (ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines) and how well the scale functioned; (b) the assessment instrument itself through evaluating how reliably it distinguished between students with different levels of self-perception, and (c) the interpretation of scores that examined how well the results could be used as a proxy measure …

Reconciling Perception With Production In Southern Speech, Rachel M. Olsen, Joseph A. Stanley, Michael L. Olsen, Lisa Lipani, Margaret E. L. Renwick

Faculty Publications

Research question: How does perception compare to production in southern speech in Linguistic Atlas data?

Hypothesis: We expect impressionistic glide weakening to correlate with less dynamic vowels.

Acoustic and perceptual data also tell different stories.

Perceptual data suggest:

• Social factors are not significant
• Pre-rhotic glides are the most weakened

Production data suggest:

• Ethnicity is significant
• Pre-lateral glides are the most weakened

As percentage of monophthongal perception goes up, Trajectory Length goes down, as expected, but the correlation is VERY weak.

Trajectory Length is not necessarily reflective of impressionistic transcriptions of glides in DASS.

The acoustic correlates to perception are not …

Social Factors In Southern Us Speech: Acoustic Analysis Of A Large-Scale Legacy Corpus, Joseph A. Stanley, Margaret E. L. Renwick

Faculty Publications

Conclusions

Vowels’ acoustics vary by race, sex and age:

• European American speakers have greater /eɪ ɛ/ swapping than African Americans, supporting Thomas’ (2007) characterization of the African American Vowel Shift
• Women have a more diphthongal realization of front /ɛ æ/ than men

Active divergence of Southern speech from other varieties:

• In this historical dataset, younger speakers lead Southern shifting: they have more “swapping” of /i ɪ/and /eɪ ɛ/, more back-vowel fronting, and more dynamic /æ/ and /ɔ/ vowels
• Older speakers are more conservative both in vowels’ relative positioning, and their dynamics

/eɪ ɛ/ are the nexus of shifting in DASS …

Vowel Dynamics Of The Elsewhere Shift: A Sociophonetic Analysis Of The English In Cowlitz County, Washington, Joseph A. Stanley

Faculty Publications

The Elsewhere Shift is in Washington (and has been for a while).

In Cowlitz County, the Elsewhere Shift is a pull chain, beginning with the (near) merger of LOT and THOUGHT, ultimately triggered and aided by:

• major events and their subsequent demographic shifts
• place reorientation from inward to outward

It didn’t (straightforwardly) spread from California or Canada

• possibly independently developed
• possibly from the same source as California and Canada
• its spread northward helped though

Methodologically, GAMMs illuminated variation and change in trajectories in the Elsewhere Shift.

Pain Or Gain? How Business Communication Students Perceive The Outlining Process, Matt Baker

Faculty Publications

This study investigates how students perceive the outlining process. Students in two business communication sections completed a survey regarding outlining perceptions and reasons for outlining or not. Using qualitative content analysis and qualitative coding, the researcher and an independent coder analyzed 34 students’ responses regarding outlining process, use, and reasons for outlining or not. Results indicate that students perceive outlining as more useful if their outlining process includes both organization and content exploration and less useful if it excludes organization or content exploration. Notable reasons for not outlining include concern for outlining time and difficulty generating content for the outline.

Extended Abstract: Comparison Of Peer And Instructor Qualitative Feedback On Presentations, Matthew J. Baker, William H. Baker

Faculty Publications

New presentation-feedback technologies enable peers and instructors to provide real-time qualitative feedback on oral presentations. Previous research suggests that summative quantitative ratings of peers and instructors tend to be moderately reliable, but no research exists on how substantive qualitative ratings compare. Analyzing the substantive qualitative feedback from 10 students and 10 instructors on two professional presentations, this study analyzes differences in the message- and messenger-related comments of peers and instructors. Findings suggest that instructors provide proportionally more messenger-related feedback.

Using Case-Method Pedagogy To Facilitate Audience Awareness, Vincent D. Robles

Faculty Publications

Introduction: Technical and professional communication (TPC) instructors value audience awareness, using peer- and client-based projects to facilitate it. We explore how students’ audience awareness is facilitated by the case method, which presents students with a professional communication task within a workplace scenario.

Situating the case: Case-method research suggests including a detailed audience and situation, multiple genres, and multimedia. Few studies have explored how case materials facilitate students’ audience awareness.

About the case: A 12-week case that was consistent with case-method research asked students to respond to an engineering firm’s internal problem with a proposal and report. How the case was …

Learner Engagement In Blended Learning Environments: A Conceptual Framework, Lisa R. Halverson, Charles R. Graham

Faculty Publications

Learner engagement correlates with important educational outcomes, including academic achievement and satisfaction. Although research is already exploring learner engagement in blended contexts, no theoretical framework guides inquiry or practice, and little consistency or specificity exists in engagement definitions and operationalizations. Developing definitions, models, and measures of the factors that indicate learner engagement is important to establishing whether changes in instructional methods (facilitators) result in improved engagement (measured via indicators). This article reviews the existing literature on learner engagement and identifies constructs most relevant to learning in general and blended learning in particular. The authors present a possible conceptual framework for …

Interaction, Student Satisfaction, And Teacher Time Investment In Online High School Courses, Chad Turley, Charles R. Graham

Faculty Publications

This case study explores differences between two online course models by investigating the results of a student end-of-course evaluation survey and teacher communication logs in two online high school courses. The two course models were designed with different types and levels of interaction, one with high levels of student-content interaction, the second with high levels of student-content and student-teacher interaction. The majority of research on interaction in online learning has been conducted with adult learners at the university level. There is far less literature focusing on K-12 online learning while investigating interaction, student satisfaction, and teacher time investment. This case …

K–12 Blended Teaching Readiness: Model And Instrument Development, Charles R. Graham, Jered Borup, Emily Pulham, Ross Larsen

Faculty Publications

An increasing number of K–12 schools have adopted blended learning approaches. Current empirical research has been sparse regarding preparing teachers for blended teaching, including the skills they must develop to teach in blended contexts. This research is focused on that weakness, with the purposes of systematically identifying the skills needed for teaching in a blended learning context and of developing and testing an instrument that can be used to determine individual and school-wide readiness for blended teaching. In this study we present a measurement model used to develop items for measuring K–12 blended learning readiness. Specifically the instrument contained the …

Déjà Vu: The Effect Of Executives And Directors With Prior Banking Crisis Experience On Bank Outcomes Around The Global Financial Crisis*, Anwer S. Ahmed, Brant E. Christensen, Adam J. Olson, Christopher G. Yust

Faculty Publications

We investigate the effect of executives and directors with prior banking crisis experience on bank outcomes around the global financial crisis (GFC). Executives and directors with previous experience leading banks through a bank crisis may have been uniquely able to understand the risks, recognize the warnings signs early, and thus respond more effectively to the GFC. Controlling for other executive, director, and bank-level characteristics, we examine whether bank performance, risk taking, and accounting quality in the period immediately before and during the GFC are affected by having executives or directors who previously served as bank executives or directors during the …

The Loss Of Information Associated With Binary Audit Reports: Evidence From Auditors’ Internal Control And Going Concern Opinions*, Brant E. Christensen, Stevanie S. Neuman, Sarah C. Rice

Faculty Publications

This study provides evidence that binary signals in audit reports are unable to fully communicate underlying risks that are inherently continuous in nature. Specifically, we find that companies whose audit reports signal an improvement in internal control effectiveness relative to the prior year are still more likely to subsequently restate the current year’s financial statements than companies with no material weaknesses in either year. Similarly, companies deemed to no longer have substantial doubt of continuing as a going concern are still more likely to declare bankruptcy than companies with no going concern opinion in either year. Results in both settings …

Shadow It Use, Outcome Effects, And Subjective Performance Evaluation, Drew Allen, F. Greg Burton, Steven D. Smith, David A. Wood

Faculty Publications

The use of shadow IT (information technology systems not sanctioned or monitored by a company’s IT department) may be seen as either a form of organizational misbehavior or proactive and creative problem-solving. We examine whether these differing possible perceptions have implications for the subjective evaluation of subordinate performance. In our experiment, participants choose whether to award a bonus to an employee when different IT systems are used (normal vs. shadow IT) across different outcome levels (high vs. low outcomes). We find that employees using shadow IT are less likely to receive the bonus in both high and low outcome conditions …

Robotic Process Automation In Public Accounting, Lauren A. Cooper, D. Kip Holderness, Trevor L. Sorensen, David A. Wood

Faculty Publications

This study investigates the adoption and use of Robotic Process Automation (RPA) software— often referred to as bots—in the public accounting industry. Accounting firms use RPA software to automate the input, processing, and output of data across computer applications in order to streamline repetitive and mundane business processes. We conducted individual, semi-structured interviews with 14 accounting professionals including at least two RPA leaders at each of the Big 4 accounting firms to gain insights into how RPA software is currently being used. Interviewees note that bots are implemented in all areas of the firm but have gained the most traction …

Factors That Influence The Perceived Use Of The Internal Audit Function's Work By Executive Management And Audit Committee, Marc Eulerich, Joleen Kremin, David A. Wood

Faculty Publications

The internal audit function (IAF) is an important component of high-quality corporate governance. We study how the head of internal audit perceives the executive management team and the audit committee to rely on the IAF's work. It is not obvious from prior work or professional anecdotes whether the IAF satisfies the needs of both groups. If multiple factors influence the IAF's work, chief audit executives (CAEs) may find themselves in a situation with competing demands, which could then compromise quality for all stakeholders. Based on a unique dataset from CAEs, two logistic regression models identify factors that influence the degree …

Reward Type And Performance: An Examination Of Organizational Wellness Programs, William G. Heninger, Steven D. Smith, David A. Wood

Faculty Publications

We examine organizational control in the context of wellness programs—organizational initiatives designed to improve the physical and mental health of employees. In a field study setting, we examine the associations of three different types of incentives (cash, gift cards, and tangible rewards) with wellness program performance. We find that employees who successfully complete program challenges are associated with greater weight loss. We also find participants choosing gift cards are associated with the greatest program success, even though cash rewards are selected more than twice as often as gift cards. Tangible rewards are the least frequently selected reward and are associated …

Analyst Forecast Bundling, Michael S. Drake, Peter Joos, Joseph Pacelli, Brady Twedt

Faculty Publications

Changing economic conditions over the past two decades have created incentives for sell-side analysts to both provide their institutional clients tiered services and to streamline their written research process. One manifestation of these changes is an increased likelihood of analysts’ issuing earnings forecasts for multiple firms on the same day. We identify this bundling property and show that bundling has increased steadily over time. We provide field evidence that the practice is a cost-saving measure, a natural byproduct of analysts focusing on thematic research, and a reflection of forecast updating that occurs in advance of important events. Our empirical analyses …

Disclosure Overload? A Professional User Perspective On The Usefulness Of General Purpose Financial Statements*, Michael S. Drake, Jeffrey Hales, Lynn Rees

Faculty Publications

We survey a broad group of professionals who use financial statements as part of their job to assess the extent to which they believe financial reports suffer from disclosure overload. Consistent with the claims made by regulators, auditors, and preparers, we find that a significant portion of professional financial statement users believe disclosure overload is a problem. However, this group is in the minority, with about twice as many professional users believing that overload is not a problem and that more information should be disclosed in financial statements. This dichotomy presents a difficult challenge to standard setters aiming to improve …

The Role Of The Business Press In The Pricing Of Analysts’ Recommendation Revisions, Minkwan Ahn, Michael S. Drake, Hangsoo Kyung, Han Stice

Faculty Publications

We investigate the information-dissemination role of the business press by examining the coverage of analyst recommendation revisions. Consistent with the press providing wider dissemination of analyst reports, we find evidence that coverage of analyst recommendation revisions significantly increases the initial market reaction to these revisions and decreases the subsequent price drift. Furthermore, we find that news flash coverage, rather than in-depth coverage, of a recommendation revision drives both the initial market reaction results and drift results. Finally, we show that broader press coverage influences the activities of large-trade institutional investors but not highfrequency traders. Overall, our findings suggest a complementary …

The Value Relevance Of Taxes: International Evidence On The Proxy For Profitability Role Of Tax Surprise, Jon Kerr

Faculty Publications

Despite evidence that tax surprise is incrementally value relevant, the literature has done little to broaden the investigation beyond the United States or examine circumstances that affect informativeness. After extending to the international setting, I examine the impact of tax enforcement. I report strong results of greater value relevance when tax enforcement is high and that the value relevance of tax surprise is mostly contained within its interaction with tax enforcement. These findings highlight the importance of tax enforcement in determining the information content of tax surprise and suggest that extant and future discussions should be broadened to include it.

Rank And File Equity Compensation And Earnings Management: Evidence From Stock Options, D. Kip Holderness Jr., Adrienna Huffman, Melissa F. Lewis-Western

Faculty Publications

The wide-spread use of rank and file equity-based compensation suggests that executives believe that rank and file employees can affect firm outcomes, and some research supports this view. If equity-based incentives influence rank and file employees’ productive efforts, they might also influence their earnings management decisions. We find that increases in rank and file employees’ option-based compensation—our proxy for equity-based compensation—are associated with increases in earnings management and that this relation is attributable to real activities (as opposed to accrual) earnings management. Cross-sectional tests indicate that the relation is stronger when rank and file option compensation is likely to generate …

Income Smoothing And The Usefulness Of Earnings For Monitoring In Debt Contracting, Peter Demerjian, John Donovan, Melissa F. Lewis-Western

Faculty Publications

We investigate whether income smoothing affects the usefulness of earnings for contracting through the monitoring role of earnings-based debt covenants. First, we examine initial contract design and predict that income smoothing will increase (decrease) the use of earnings-based covenants if income smoothing improves (reduces) the usefulness of earnings to monitor borrowers. We find that private debt contracts to borrowers with greater income smoothing are more likely to include earnings-based covenants. A structural model that explores the cause of this relationship provides evidence that smoothing improves the ability of earnings to reflect credit risk. Second, we examine technical default following contract …

International Auditing Considerations At Carrefour S.A., Timothy Seidel, Bill Tayler

Faculty Publications

Carrefour S.A. is a multinational retailer headquartered in France that operates over 10,800 stores worldwide consisting of hypermarkets (a supermarket and department store under one roof), supermarkets, and convenience stores, as well as e-commerce websites. The objective of this three-part case study is to expose students to international (or multi-national client) audit issues/considerations. Multi-national clients often have multiple locations or components that require separately audited financial information that is included in consolidated or group financial statements. The first case exposes students to the need to allocate materiality across components of a group audit. The second part of the case then …

Drivers Of International Variation In Prevalence Of Disabling Low Back Pain: Findings From The Cultural And Psychosocial Influences On Disability Study, David Coggon, Georgia Ntani, Keith T. Palmer, Vanda E. Felli, Florencia Harari, Leonardo A. Quintana, Sarah A. Felknor, Marianela Rojas, Anna Cattrell, Muhammad Masood Kadir

Community Health Sciences

Background: Wide international variation in the prevalence of disabling low back pain (LBP) among working populations is not explained by known risk factors. It would be useful to know whether the drivers of this variation are specific to the spine or factors that predispose to musculoskeletal pain more generally.
Methods: Baseline information about musculoskeletal pain and risk factors was elicited from 11 710 participants aged 20-59 years, who were sampled from 45 occupational groups in 18 countries. Wider propensity to pain was characterized by the number of anatomical sites outside the low back that had been painful in …

A Systematic Review Of Observational Studies, Demonstrating Smoking Among School Going Adolescents, Shafquat Rozi, Gillian Lancaster, Sadia Mahmud, Zahid Ahmad Butt, Talat Roome, Nida Zahid

Community Health Sciences

Objective: To characterize the methods of design and analysis currently adopted in survey research of school-based observational studies for smoking, and to identify the common pitfalls made by researchers.
Methods: The systematic review was conducted in 2009 and consisted of observational studies in school settings published between January 2005 and January 2009. Smoking status was the main outcome of interest. Following Cochrane style, five steps were followed: setting selection criteria for studies and conducting a literature search; review of abstracts; review of complete articles; data extraction and quality assessment of included studies; and, finally, synthesis of studies.
Results: Of the …

Applying Deep Learning Approach To The Far-Field Subwavelength Imaging Based On Near-Field Resonant Metalens At Microwave Frequencies, He Ming Yao, Min Li, Lijun Jiang

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In this paper, we utilize the deep learning approach for the subwavelength imaging in far-field, which is realized by the near-field resonant metalens at microwave frequencies. The resonating metalens consisting of split-ring resonators (SRRs) are equipped with the strong magnetic coupling ability and can convert evanescent waves into propagating waves using the localized resonant modes. The propagating waves in the far-field are utilized as the input of a trained deep convolutional neural network (CNN) to realize the imaging. The training data for establishing the deep CNN are obtained by the EM simulation tool. Besides, the white Gaussian noise is added …

Machine-Learning-Based Pml For The Fdtd Method, He Ming Yao, Lijun Jiang

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In this letter, a novel absorbing boundary condition (ABC) computation method for finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) is proposed based on the machine learning approach. The hyperbolic tangent basis function (HTBF) neural network is introduced to replace traditional perfectly matched layer (PML) ABC during the FDTD solving process. The field data on the interface of conventional PML are employed to train HTBF-based PML model. Compared to the conventional approach, the novel method greatly decreases the size of a computation domain and the computation complexity of FDTD because the new model only involves the one-cell boundary layer. Numerical examples are provided to benchmark …

Naïve Readings: Reveilles Political And Philosophic By Ralph Lerner (Review), Richard Benjamin Crosby

Faculty Publications

Naïve Readings is an enjoyable series of critical examinations of major historical texts written by a political historian who thinks he has discovered rhetorical analysis. On its dust jacket, Ralph Lerner’s latest book purports to offer “a new method of reading . . . a way toward deeper understanding of some of history’s most important—and most concealed—messages.” A tantalizing endorsement—one that befıts Lerner’s distinguished scholarly career. Lerner himself calls the book a “reconsideration” of “our current habits of reading” (2). So, we are led to expect a bold survey of the major thinkers he studies, from Franklin to Tocqueville to …