Digital Commons Network^™

Who Benefits From Park And Recreation Improvements In San Francisco? A Case Study Of Recreation Center Renovations In San Francisco, Safia Belayadi

Master's Theses

The purpose of this study is to examine the efficacy of city policies undertaking public goods investments to benefit disadvantaged communities in San Francisco. Namely, is the process of improving the quality of public goods serving targeted populations, or does it lead to unintended consequences such as gentrification? I take advantage of the timing of city recreation center renovations and the synthetic control method to capture any difference in the proportion of users that is poor before and after the renovation date. I use San Francisco Recreation and Park Department registrant data containing user zip codes and census demographic data …

Rompiendo Alambres: Immigrant Youth Navigating School And Life In St. Louis, Julia Campus Macias

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

This project focuses on educational and life trajectories of Central American youth in St. Louis, Missouri, who have immigrated unaccompanied from Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua. By tracking and telling their stories, I hope to amplify these young immigrants’ voices, and complicate others’ perceptions of their place and worth in this country. Current immigration policies and enforcement practices have made the entry process more punitive, restrictive and deadly. The immigrant experience, especially for young people, confronts many state institutions, chief among them the educational system. Institutions like schools become entry points for immigrants but can also be spaces for …

The Effectiveness Of Visual Phonics To Promote Phonological Awareness In Preschool Children With And Without Speech Sound Delays, Katelyn Derby

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

The purpose of this study was to examine the phonological awareness skill of letter-sound relationships for preschool students using the multi-kinesthetic Visual Phonics intervention, See the Sound/Visual Phonics. The study had a non-concurrent multiple baseline data procedure, where each child was exposed to a general phonics curriculum in comparison to a Visual Phonics intervention. A specific interest was understanding potential benefits (i.e., rate of mastery) for preschool students with typical hearing, and the potential for Visual Phonics to support improved letter-sound accuracy for children at risk for speech sound disorders and delays. The results of the study indicated See the …

Building Communities: Interpreting Oneota And Mississipppian Interaction Through Paleoethnobotanical Analysis At The Morton Village Site (11f2), West-Central Illinois, Kelsey Olivia Nordine

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Archaeological investigations of social interaction at the community level provide insight into the daily lives of past people and the social structures that guide these community-level interactions. This dissertation uses paleoethnobotanical analysis to examine the nature of social identity negotiation and community at the site-level scale, using data from excavations at the Morton Village site (11F2). Morton Village is a Bold Counselor Oneota and Mississippian settlement in the Central Illinois River Valley (CIRV), occupied contemporaneously by both groups in the 14th century and identified as a multiethnic or multicultural village through the presence of two distinct types of ceramic remains. …

Feeling Women's Cuir Cultural Production: Reparative Criticisms, Temporal Displacements, Francesca Dennstedt

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

In Feeling Women’s Cuir Culture: Reparative criticisms, Temporal Displacements I identify cuir moments, that is instances scattered through time when heteropatriarchal structures are troubled to later use that troubling either as a political force or an epistemological moment. I argue that women’s cuir cultural production uses negative feelings to unmake normative structures; therefore, keywords in this production are able to reorient us to empathetic practices of cultural criticism. Throughout a diverse corpus that ranges from the analysis of canonical literary figures such as Inés Arredondo to visual culture and fashion, from a Brazilian graphic novel to drag performances in the …

Rhythmic Auditory Cueing Of Gait In Parkinson Disease, Adam Patrick Horin

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Parkinson disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative movement disorder characterized by motor complications such as gait deficits and is caused by the depletion of dopamine producing neurons in the basal ganglia (BG). Gait deficits, including decreased velocity and increased variability, are among the most debilitating symptoms of PD and lead to an increased risk of falls. Common pharmacological treatments do not target many gait symptoms. Therefore, gait rehabilitation methods that can improve these deficits in gait are highly important. A common form of gait rehabilitation is known as rhythmic auditory cueing, in which an individual matches their footfalls to the beat …

The Filipino Sign Language Act In The Philippines: Policy Analysis, Angela Rogers

Undergraduate University Honors Capstones

Passed in 2018, the Filipino Sign Language Act provides full access for Deaf Filipinos in the Philippines and fully recognizes the Filipino Sign Language as a national sign language for the Deaf. This benefits analysis identifies objectives concerning all areas of public life--such as medicine, education, civic and government affairs, employment, television news access, and other media access--and compares this broad law to the narrowly focused preceding policy, Republic Act no. 10905. The law contains an implementation timeline and requires reporting; yet, evidence shows some implementations but no reporting. To explore these findings, interviews were conducted with two Filipinos at …

Investigating Birth Outcomes Among Deaf Mothers: Hospital Vs. Home Births, Aashni Kamra

Undergraduate University Honors Capstones

This study examined birth outcomes among Deaf mothers who have given birth in a hospital setting versus a home setting. Deaf individuals are often marginalized in healthcare due to lack of accessibility, and therefore, the right to make their own informed decisions. This marginalization leads to inequality in health care, and oftentimes individuals within the Deaf community, with added intersectionalities, face even more discrimination. Deaf women face more health disparities in comparison to hearing women due to a variety of factors which include; lack of accessibility, medical professionals’ lack of cultural competency, and lack of inclusion in their healthcare decisions. …

Texts, Language, And History In The Madhab-Law Tradition: A Study Of The ShāfiʿĪ School, Tarek Ghanem

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis advances the study of the legal literature from the madhhab-law tradition by way of studying the Shāfiʿī literary tradition and its two most authoritative classics. These two works are al-Nawawī’s (d. 676/1278) digest Minhāj al-ṭālibīn and Ibn Ḥajar al-Haytamī’s (d. 974/1567) commentary on it, Tuḥfat al-minhāj. This study will provide a typology of the development of the Shāfiʿī juristic texts. The typology is based on an indigenous and coherent periodization centered around an analysis of the intellectual and social developments within the Shāfiʿī legal tradition, not the classical Eurocentric periodization scheme. The main objective of this typology is …

Cross-Language Morphological Activation: The Case Of Arabic-English Bilinguals, Anas Alkhofi

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

The role of morphology in bilingual lexical access is an under-investigated topic. Due to the overrepresentation of concatenative-based languages which inherently cannot adequately isolate effects of morphology from those of orthography and semantics, morphological processing had been relegated to a secondary role in lexical access. The present research utilized Arabic, a non-concatenative Semitic language, to investigate the role of morphology in bilingual language processing. Two experiments using translation recognition and masked lexical decision were conducted with Arabic-English bilinguals to answer two research questions: 1) Does (Arabic) morphology mediate cross-language activation? and 2) Is Arabic-English cross-language morphological activation task-dependent? Mixed effects …

Documenting Desire: Addressing The Educational Needs Of Undocumented English Learners, Alejandra Sofia Torres

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

While research on motivation in second language acquisition is copious and the interest in undocumented youth within the education field is growing, there is a need to closely examine the intersection of being both undocumented and an English Learner (EL) and how this intersection often limits ELs, especially those in underserved schools. Using ethnographic methods, this dissertation documents the educational experiences of thirty-one Spanish-speaking ELs in a predominately of color, urban, working-class high school in the southeastern United States. EL participants were ages fourteen through twenty with varying non-citizen immigrant statuses. Semi-structured interviews and field notes were collected during the …

Bolstering Hyde’S Basic French Conversations I & Ii As A Resource For Missouri French Dialect Learning, Henry Greenstein

Senior Honors Papers / Undergraduate Theses

This paper features an analysis of the linguistic features of the Missouri French dialect, such as vocabulary, syntax, and phonology, and specifically how they are presented by Hyde in her Basic French Conversations I & II: Lessons 1-8. The ultimate goal is to bolster Hyde’s textbook’s effectiveness as a dialect teaching tool by providing additional context from other Missouri French academic works, studies of separate French dialects such as Louisiana French, and personal research. The project begins with an overview of the sparse linguistic and cultural inquiry that preceded Hyde’s textbook, then recaps the circumstances that led to Hyde …

Critically Assessing The Invalidity Of Race Realism And Finding Solutions To Educate Society On Racial Theory, Ryan Lawless

English Student Scholarship

With race being a hard concept to grasp, many competing theories have arisen to explain what race is and how to categorise someone by race. The dominant explanation for race in early history has been characterised by race realism. Colloquially, race realism is the theory that scientific evidence proves race to be objectively definable by trends in geography, appearance, and most prominently, genetics. Previous research from Stanford geneticist Noah Rosenberg (2005) that looked to support this topic has relied on small sample sizes and data that had otherwise been misconducted. When Sarah Tishkoff (2009) of the University of Pennsylvania conducted …

Conquering Esl Students' English Listening Barriers, Dan Wu

Master's Projects and Capstones

Many students learning English as a Second Language (ESL) have some English pronunciation barriers in their listening and speaking, consisting of incomplete explosion, liaison, weak forms. The project aims to help ESL students find effective ways to conquer these common English pronunciation barriers in listening comprehension. At the same time, ESL students will learn the standard pronunciation habits of English sentences. This project is designed to use specific listening practice to assist in conquering ESL students’ English listening barriers of incomplete explosion, liaison and weak forms. By using the materials in this project, ESL students can learn to find their …

Reducing The No-Show Rate Of Breast Cancer Screenings: A Quality Improvement Project, Julisa Lau

Master's Projects and Capstones

Clinical nurse leaders (CNLs) are change agents who “improve quality, cost, or efficiency of healthcare delivery” (Noles, Barber, James, & Wingo, 2019, p. 307). The CNL of a breast cancer clinic recognized the significant impact the high no-show rate of breast cancer screening appointments had on patient outcomes and staff productivity. After conducting a microsystem assessment, the CNL organized a meeting with key stakeholders to identify potential interventions to address this issue. Concerns regarding the efficiency and effectiveness of the current telephone reminder system were raised, indicating an area for improvement. The CNL facilitated the team in researching evidence-based practices …

Reducing Frustration With Wait Times Utilizing Technology And Education: A Patient Satisfaction Improvement Model, Tiffany Brown

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Projects

Problem: Patients spend considerable amounts of valuable time waiting to be seen by physicians in outpatient clinical settings. Many consider waiting as wasted time, inactive time, or as a lost opportunity which can cause frustration. Research suggests that long clinic wait times have a major impact on patients with cancer causing a significant amount emotional distress. Context: At the hospital and thoracic oncology clinic implementation site which is located in northern California, the target time for a New Patient Visit (NPV) is less than or equal to 90 minutes, and less than or equal to 60 minutes for a Return …

Uniting And Dividing Influences Of Religion On Parent–Child Relationships In Highly Religious Families, Heather Howell Kelley, Loren D. Marks, David C. Dollahite

Faculty Publications

Religion can have both helpful and harmful influences on relationships. The purpose of this study is to better understand how religion can have both a unifying and a dividing influence on parent–child relationships. Through the use of interviews with 198 highly religious families (N = 476 individuals), we address some of the complexity inherent in religion and examine the influence of three dimensions of religious experience (religious practices, religious beliefs, and religious community). Findings are supported with primary qualitative data. For the highly religious parents and children in this study, 8 times as many unifying accounts of religion than …

Teaching With Empathy In The Adult Esl Classroom: A Training Guide, Maureen Carapia

Master's Projects and Capstones

Many view empathy as a necessary skill for relating to different groups of people and successfully communicating across cultures. Research supports empathy’s importance in the education field for promoting positive outcomes in the classroom and fomenting a culturally sensitive class environment. Teaching with empathy is particularly important in the context of adult ESL (English as a Second Language) instruction, given the culturally diverse classroom environment and instructors who likely possess different cultural norms than their students. Regarding effective strategies to teach these students with empathy, however, the research falls short. The mere notion of defining empathy breeds disagreement, as many …

Referential Transparency In Young Children’S Picture Books: A Pilot Study, Brianna Kinnie

Honors Scholar Theses

A wealth of research has shown that reading picture books supports several aspects of young children’s learning and development. In this thesis, we explore the hypothesis that the power of picture books is in part due to their referentially transparent nature. To test this possibility, we designed a picture-book version of the Human Simulation Paradigm (HSP), an experimental paradigm previously used to quantify the referential transparency of child-directed speech in parent-child interactions. Adult participants (N = 18) were presented with pages from children’s picture books (with text blocked out) and asked to identify either the nouns or the verbs …

The Language Abilities Of Justice-Involved Adults, Talaya Patton

Student Theses

This study explores the relationship between language abilities and involvement with the justice system across the lifespan. Previous research has demonstrated a significantly higher prevalence of language impairment in juvenile justice populations, relative to the general population. These language impairments have been found across both expressive and receptive abilities, often previously undiagnosed.Further, juvenile justice involvement is a well-established predictor for later adult criminal behavior.However, no studies to date have explored the effects of language abilities and juvenile justice involvement on future outcomes, namely continued justice involvement in adulthood. The current study utilizes archival data on 95 incarcerated men to analyze …

The Influence Of Language Proficiency On Assimilation Of Kurdish Immigrants Into American Society, Zakaria Amin

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

Abstract

The objective of this study was to identify what factors may contribute to the adaptation of Kurdish immigrant adults into American society. Of particular interest is whether an immigrant’s age and whether knowledge of English are major influences. Previous research indicated that these two may be factors, but no research on the Kurdish community was conducted. This study attempts to fill that gap and find out if the Kurdish community follows patterns seen with other groups. The study used both qualitative and quantitative methods to collect data via interviews. Participants consisted of 20 Kurdish immigrant adults (ages 18-70) of …

Hearing The Voices Of Bicultural And Bilingual Teachers: Using A Case Study Approach To Explain The Professional Identity Development Of Early Career Native Chinese Mandarin Teachers, Jing Chen

Dissertations and Theses

Increasingly, Native Chinese Mandarin teachers have been migrating to the United States and taking positions as Mandarin teachers in U.S. schools. Many have needed support for professional identity development as bicultural and bilingual teachers given their new social cultural context. The purpose of this study was to describe and explain the experiences and professional identity development of early-career Native Chinese Mandarin teachers in one Northwest Pacific city. Using a theoretical framework of social cultural theory in education and the bicultural identity integration construct, I conducted a multiple case study of four early-career Native Chinese Mandarin teachers in four different school …

The Two Types Of Society: Computationally Revealing Recurrent Social Formations And Their Evolutionary Trajectories, Lux Miranda, Jacob Freeman

Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology Faculty Publications

Comparative social science has a long history of attempts to classify societies and cultures in terms of shared characteristics. However, only recently has it become feasible to conduct quantitative analysis of large historical datasets to mathematically approach the study of social complexity and classify shared societal characteristics. Such methods have the potential to identify recurrent social formations in human societies and contribute to social evolutionary theory. However, in order to achieve this potential, repeated studies are needed to assess the robustness of results to changing methods and data sets. Using an improved derivative of the Seshat: Global History Databank, …

Mexican Modernism’S Other: The Contemporáneos, Gender, And National Identity, 1920–1940, Joseph S. Shaikewitz

Theses and Dissertations

In postrevolutionary Mexico, a group of artists known as the Contemporáneos redefined the parameters of modernism through personal expressions of otherness and difference. This thesis examines works by artists including Abraham Ángel, Julio Castellanos, María Izquierdo, and Manuel Rodríguez Lozano in relation to shifting discourses surrounding gender and national identity.

Capitalizing On Language: The Political And Economic (Re)Circulation Of A National Imaginary, Joseph L. Flores

Communication ETDs

In interrogating a political propaganda campaign carried out on social media platforms, I argue that the political economic practices of platforms, fueled by an (inter)action of human networks and technological networks, underscore the significance of communicative tactics, the strategic use of language, and user labor that drive political and economic projects. In an analysis that focuses on the discourse of memes used to support a Trump national imaginary, the dissemination of its content and the construction of meaning via user labor on social media platforms, intensifies, strengthens, and emboldens political projects and platform logics that affectively buttress political propaganda.

The …

Se Dice Pelo Bueno: Black Affirmations In Contemporary Puerto Rican Literature, Amaryllis Lopez

Honors Program Theses and Projects

In recent years, the natural hair movement has demanded social, political, and cultural acceptance of Black hair on a global scale. Particularly in the Hispanophone Caribbean, the natural hair movement has been a tool to not only promote the acceptance of curly, kinky hair but to combat Latin America’s anti-Blackness. I have found that although Black hair in the Hispanophone Caribbean is constantly compared to textures found in nature such as wool and pajón, it has also been regarded as unnatural. My work has been largely inspired by the essay “Beyond blanqueamiento: black affirmation in contemporary Puerto Rico,” in which …

Understanding Gender Practices And Identity In Virginia Woolf’S To The Lighthouse Through The Theories Of Erving Goffman, Meaghan Mcintyre

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

This paper uses sociologist Erving Goffman’s theories to examine the nature of gender and identity in Virginia Woolf’s 1927 novel, To The Lighthouse. By reading the novel through the lens of Goffman’s theory about what constitutes a performance, as well as applying his argument about the role of the front region and back region in shaping human conduct, gendered behavior is shown to be part of a “socialized [and] molded” (Goffman 35) performance instead of being a predisposed trait. In her representation of the Victorian man Mr. Ramsay, the Victorian woman Mrs. Ramsay, and the modern woman Lily Briscoe, Woolf …

​The Case Of The Melting Pot: How Does Opinion Bias Affect One’S Understanding Of Immigration In The Us?​, Mary Ankomah

Honors Program Theses and Projects

In such a delicate political climate the complete acceptance of legal immigrants in the United States seems too often to be a challenge carried to many native-born Americans. Feelings of displeasure, annoyance and anger are repeatedly cultivated by many American citizens towards immigrants. News media and social media platforms have displayed this kind of negative behavior towards legal immigrants, in which they are often accused of “stealing jobs,” “trying to suppress a certain ethnic population,” or “infesting” the area. This study analyzes the political-psychological reason behind this learned reaction, while focusing on factors that have sponsored this level of intolerance …

African American Vernacular English: A Language Necessarily Adorned, Christelle Lauture

Honors Program Theses and Projects

African American Vernacular English (AAVE) has been spoken by African Americans for centuries but has only recently been acknowledged as a distinct dialect. It is often used in tandem with Standard English, through a concept referred to as code-switching. Although linguists have done substantial work to validate AAVE, there is an incomplete understanding of why the dialect developed, and, in particular, what functions the dialect serves for its speakers. In order to begin the work of discovering why AAVE developed the specific features it manifests, I synthesized other linguists’ observations into a taxonomy of five categories that account for most …

Big Girl | Little Girl, Emily Mueller

Graduate School of Art Theses

In my thesis document, I unpack the relationship of my photographs to space, bodies, language, and childhood through a feminist lens. The interaction with these various aspects alludes to larger societal structures that inform identity. I am interested in the negotiation between gender and the way it informs the occupation of space, both photographic and physical. The intersection between subjects and objects is dissected using the definitions of these terms set forth by Judith Butler. Becoming a subject does not indicate that one is free from the power that creates it. The figure in my photographs wonders if attempting to …