Digital Commons Network^™

The Missing D In U.S. Foreign Relations Law, David H. Moore

Faculty Scholarship

United States foreign relations law once subsisted on the outskirts of constitutional and international law. Now a recognized field of scholarship in its own right, foreign relations law addresses some of the most important questions of our time, such as whether the President may unilaterally conduct strikes against Iran or withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement. For all its importance, however, U.S. foreign relations law has developed with blinders on. U.S. foreign policy embraces at least three Ds: defense, diplomacy, and development. Yet foreign relations law scholarship has approached the critical questions of the field almost exclusively through the lens …

Student Engagement In A Remote Language Learning Environment: The Case Of Ukrainian, Olena Sivachenko, Alla Nedashkivska

Russian Language Journal

This paper explores student perceptions of engagement in remote first-year, second-year, and third-year Ukrainian as a foreign language courses at a postsecondary institution. It examines student engagement at five levels: behavioral, emotional, cognitive, agentic, and social. This exploration of engagement, using the case of Ukrainian, supports the view of engagement as a multidimensional concept in which the various levels are interconnected and influence one another. The article provides pedagogical advice that is relevant not only to the context of remote instruction.

Service-Provider Virtual Exchange As A Viable Alternative To Face-To-Face Speaking Practice: Data From Second- And Third-Year Russian Learners, Liudmila Klimanova, Valentina Vinokurova

Russian Language Journal

In the context of emergency remote language teaching during the pandemic, the biggest challenge for instructors has been to continue providing learners with opportunities to practice speaking and comprehension skills. Service provider virtual exchange (SPVE) platforms, such as Conversifi, Boomalang, TalkAbroad, iTalki, and LinguaMeeting have the potential to enrich the online learning experience by offering paid videoconferencing sessions with native-speaking language coaches at the students’ convenience. Research shows that regular videoconferencing with native-speaking peers may improve speaking ability (Saito and Akiyama 2017) and foster the development of intercultural competence (Tecedor and Vasseur 2020). This paper will discuss a pilot implementation …

Developing Russian Oral Skills In The Online Environment, Elena Doludenko

Russian Language Journal

The global pandemic due to COVID-19 forced classes to go into online or remote modes in a very short period of time. Instructors teaching languages, including Russian, had to adjust assignments and tasks to continue developing oral skills in the new environment. This paper describes various activities and techniques used in synchronous and asynchronous online Russian classes since March 2020. These activities ensured that L2 students continued practicing Russian in new modalities. In particular, this article discusses the benefits of individual and paired recordings, paired work in Breakout Rooms in Zoom, individual work on pronunciation, and video projects. These activities …

Raise Your Hand: Online Language And Culture Instruction, Inclusivity, And Critical Pedagogy, Thomas Jesús Garza

Russian Language Journal

The strained pedagogies in the wake of the transition to virtual online delivery of instruction in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, while taxing some instructors’ and students’ patience, have also resulted in reimagined curricula and new opportunities for student engagement and participation in our language and culture courses. This essay presents a rationale for the creation of ecologies of equity and inclusion within online delivery of course content on platforms such as Zoom, including suggestions for creating Breakout Room tasks and activities that encourage critical engagement and dialogue among learners and facilitate the creation of “safe spaces” for open …

Here, There, And Elsewhere: Reimagining Russian Language And Culture Course Syllabi For Social Justice, Thomas Jesús Garza

Russian Language Journal

The past two decades have witnessed enrollments in American colleges and universities for U.S. residents aged 18 to 24 increase from 35 percent in 2000 to 41 percent in 2018. Within this demographic, those identifying in census data as Hispanic/Latinx increased during the same period from 22 to 36 percent, as Black 31 to 37 percent, as Asian 56 to 59 percent, as Indigenous/Native American 16 to 24 percent, and as bi-or multiracial 38 to 44 percent (Hussar et al. 2020, 125). As the student population of higher education in the United States begins to reflect the national demographic portrait …

The Russian Coordinating Conjunctions И And А: Their Meaning, Function, And Pedagogy, Mark J. Elson

Russian Language Journal

This paper is concerned with the systemic status of the coordinating conjunctions и and а in Contemporary Standard Russian. Most previous treatments of и and а have, without comment, viewed them as minimal syntactic units (i.e., words) defined, for systemic purposes, functionally—as equating or likening in the case of и but contrasting or opposing in that of а. However, these treatments, whether intentionally or unwittingly, have left unattended the possibility that и and а, although syntactic units, are more properly defined grammatically (i.e., are systemically characterized by an invariant grammatical meaning of which their functions are derivative).1 At …

From Error Annotation To Quantitative Analysis: Patterns In Russian Language Learning, Irina Kor Chahine, Ekaterina Uetova

Russian Language Journal

Although learner corpus research has been progressively growing into an independent branch of corpus linguistics, the learner corpus cannot yet fully benefit from corpus analysis methods. This is due to several technical obstacles involving data collection, error annotation, and finally, data processing. When it comes to data collection, compared to corpus linguistics, learner corpus is biased because some of the learner corpora are still collected manually: Optical character recognition (OCR) is not yet sophisticated enough to transform a student’s handwritten copy to a digitized text. This fact significantly slows the collection of learner corpora. Furthermore, typed students’ texts present another …

Excerpt From Ключевые Идеи Русской Языковой Картины Мира: The Breadth Of The Russian Soul, Alexei D. Shmelev, Nicole-Marie Konopelko, Translator, Stephen M. Dickey, Preface

Russian Language Journal

In 2005 a collection of articles appeared under the title Ключевые идеи русской языковой картины мира (‘Key Ideas of the Russian Linguistic Worldview’), authored by Anna A. Zalizniak, Irina B. Levontina and Aleksei D. Shmelev and published by the Языки славянской культуры (‘Languages of Slavic Culture’) publishing house in Moscow. The studies in Key Ideas of the Russian Linguistic Worldview were inspired by the work of Anna Wierzbicka, most notably her Understanding Cultures through Their Key Words: English, Russian, Polish, German, Japanese (Oxford University Press, 1997). The idea behind the volume is that language communities operate with a ‘linguistic picture …

Review: Llc (Language, Literature, Culture) Commons: Open Resources For Online Teaching Slavic, Jennifer Bown

Russian Language Journal

The web resource LLC (Language, Literature, Culture) Commons: Open Resources for Online Teaching Slavic, created by Shannon Donnally Spasova and Liudmila Klimanova, allows instructors to share quality online materials that can endure over time. LLC Commons organizes a set of online Russian language modules developed primarily by the authors. All of the materials on the website are licensed under a Creative Commons license, allowing instructors to revise, reuse, and redistribute the lessons as long as the authors of the lesson are given credit.

Cyber Trespass And Property Concepts, Adam J. Macleod

Scholarly Articles

Access to information is the purpose of the Internet. Ask anyone born after the dawn of the information age; they will tell you that cyberspace is the place to go if one wants to know stuff. On the other hand, many of the people who put stuff on the Internet or on systems connected to the Internet will tell you that, without legal rights to control or block access, people will not have incentives to put on the Internet stuff that is worth knowing. In this tension between access and control, property is generally assumed to be on the side …

Reducing Stress And Anxiety Level Of Caregivers Of Loved Ones Living With Dementia Through A Video Guided Meditation Program, Patricia Brown-Gordon

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2020 - Present

Caring for a person with dementia can have serious implications for the psychological condition of family caregivers. There are high rates of stress and anxiety amongst family caregivers of individuals with dementia. Many authors show the invaluable service these family members provide and the need for healthcare providers to recognize and promote health amongst this population. In an effort to improve the health outcome for family caregivers, this doctoral project was designed to develop and implement a health promotion project through the use of a video guided meditation program. This paper emphasizes the need for attention to this concern, to …

Improving Blood Pressure Control Through Self-Measured Blood Pressure Monitoring, Mary K. Davis

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2020 - Present

Uncontrolled hypertension can negatively affect a person’s overall health. Therefore, it is crucial that health care providers understand evidence-based measures that can improve hypertension control. The following Doctor of Nursing Practice project aimed to help improve hypertension outcomes in a community health clinic in West Palm Beach, Florida. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the impact of self-measured blood pressure monitoring (SMBP) as a self-management support strategy and discuss the outcomes of an educational intervention in a small community population. Along with a synthesis of current evidence on SMBP, this paper outlines the processes involved in measuring the …

Psychoeducation To Assist In Decreasing Depression And Increasing Participation In Psychotherapy In Blacks/African Americans, Jean Raynald Delice

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2020 - Present

Purpose: The purpose of this quality improvement project is to assess the effectiveness of a Psychoeducation Program (PP) in decreasing symptoms of depression and improving participation in psychotherapy amongst Blacks/African Americans at a Federally Qualified Health Care Center (FQHC) in Miami Dade County, Florida. Created by the project leader, the PP was built upon resources provided by trusted organizations such as the National Institute of Mental Health (NIH, 2020) and Beyond Blue of Australia (Beyond blue 2021). Method: The participants were comprised of 7 men and 5 women Blacks/African Americans living with depression, on antidepressants and not interested in participating …

Literacy Work Beyond Our Buildings: The Collaborative Work Of Creating A Community Writing Center, Catherine Calabro Cavin, Cathy Fleisher, Ann Blakeslee, Mary Garboden

YpsiWrites Publicity

No abstract provided.

Parental Engagement In The Baptismal Process At Florida Hospital Seventh-Day Adventist Church, Gregory Creek

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Problem

Baptism, one of the few spiritual milestones in the life of a young person, is not experienced at Florida Hospital Church with the intentional inclusion of parents, a group that has a greater spiritual influence for their children than any other person.

Method

To help engage parents in the process, a baptismal preparation program was developed that provided training and resources for parents who then prepared their children for baptism. The program consisted of a session with parents, children, and the pastor; two sessions with parents and the pastor; and four sessions done by parents in the home with …

Missional Prayer: The Ebenezer Model As A Relational Catalyst For Disciple Making Through The Collegedale Seventh-Day Adventist Church, James Gordon Moon Sr.

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Problem

In a 2010 missional assessment, the Collegedale Seventh-day Adventist Church was made aware of a missional blind spot in relation to the external needs of its ministry context. A 2017 MinistryInsight.com Priorities Report also identified the region's desire for warmth and friendship from religious communities as a top ministry preference. In a 2018 effort to begin addressing these needs, Collegedale’s pastoral staff chose "Christ has called us to Make Friends," an actionable expression of Jesus' commission to make disciples. In light of these factors, the Collegedale Church needs a relational catalyst to encourage attenders and members to make friends …

Formation Of A Millennial Cafe Ministry In Ogden, Utah: An Economically Viable Model, Ryan Kent Hablitzel

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Problem

Connecting and retaining millennials within established church structure has proven difficult in my context. I have a genuine desire for community and purpose within millennial groups, yet the majority remain removed from traditional church programming and events. A growing disenfranchisement with current church framework has caused many millennials to disengage or seek purpose elsewhere.

Method

Press Together was formed as a new millennial friendly approach to ministry in Ogden, UT. This raw cold-pressed juicery serves the healthiest organic options from its retail location while providing a space for fellowship, ministry and employment. This uses millenial focus groups and financial …

An Exploration Of The Relationship Between Aphasia Therapy, Depression And Quality Of Life In Post-Stroke Patients After Rehabilitation At 12 And 26 Weeks After Stroke: A Verse Sub-Study, Alia Rashid Khan

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Background: Depression is a common consequence of stroke, and people with aphasia (PWA) post-stroke have a higher risk of developing depression compared to stroke survivors without aphasia. However, current stroke interventions featuring aphasia therapy tend to neglect the effect of the treatment on mood. There is also a lack of evidence on the impact of stroke education and counselling on PWA in early stroke recovery. Additionally, the research on post-stroke depression often excludes or insufficiently describes PWA in study populations. The influence of direct aphasia therapy on depression in PWA is undetermined. This sub-study investigated: i) the effect of …

Vocabulary Builder Model For Autistic Children, Maryam Rastikazerooni

Student Works (2020-2029)

Most children with autism suffer from impairments in specific cognitive processing styles, social skills, and communication skills, which affect the academic performance of those children in pre-school. The difficulties in language comprehension and communication skills result in the lack of motivation, attention, satisfaction, and interaction in this population, thus causing the children to encounter deficits in learning and especially learning vocabulary. Many Mobile-Based interventions (MBI) have been developed to address the deficits in this population. However, there are very few vocabulary builders’ software which focus on improving the vocabulary learning skills as well as providing consistent motivation for autistic children. …

Assessing Early Literacy Using School-Based Assessment, Nur Amalina Dayana Abd Aziz

Student Works (2020-2029)

Early literacy is an important foundation for learning. The importance of having mastered literacy early is not limited to students’ success at school but also extends into their after-school lives. Students with a good foundation in literacy are better prepared to participate as citizens. In line with the Ministry of Education Malaysia’s vision of producing world-class citizens, school-based assessment was first implemented in primary schools in 2011. Various studies on aspects such as teachers’ readiness, knowledge, understanding and practice of school-based assessment have been conducted using the quantitative method and within the context of secondary schools. The current study therefore …

International Rule Of Law And Domestic Courts: A Few Concerns, Akhila Basalalli

Articles

The manifestation of the international rule of law appears as one of the possible paths to check the rule of power and establish an egalitarian system. Many international organizations have emphasized on the international rule of law in their objectives and mandates and have called the states to act in their service. The domestic courts have resonated with the call by exhibiting internationalism in their decisions. The international norms have been domesticated by the courts by adopting several incorporation and interpretation methods. The domestic courts, therefore, have been called as the ‘agents’ in the service of international law and protectors …

Guided Tissue Regeneration Techniques Involving Blood-Derived Products In Periradicular Surgery: A Systematic Review And Meta-Analysis Protocol, G Baniulyte, K Ali, L Burns

Peninsula Dental School

No abstract provided.

Polystyrene Foam As A Source And Sink Of Chemicals In The Marine Environment: An Xrf Study, Andrew Turner

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

No abstract provided.

Eslicarbazepine Acetate Response In Intellectual Disability Population Versus General Population, Jon Allard, Charlotte Lawthom, William Henley, Brendan Mclean, Sharon Hudson, Phil Tittensor, Sanjeev Rajakulendran, Shan Ellawela, Adrian Pace, Rohit Shankar

Peninsula Medical School

Background: A quarter of people with intellectual disability (ID) have epilepsy, compared to approximately one in a hundred across the general population. Evidence for the safe and effective prescribing of antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) for those with ID is, however, limited. Aims of Study: This study seeks to strengthen the research evidence around Eslicarbazepine Acetate (ESL), a new AED, by comparing response of individuals with ID to those from the general population who do not have ID. Methods: A single data set was created through retrospective data collection from English and Welsh NHS Trusts. The UK-based Epilepsy Database Research Register (Ep-ID) …

Wave Energy In The Uk: Status Review And Future Perspectives, Siya Jin, Deborah Greaves

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

No abstract provided.

Trait Evaluations Of Faces And Voices: Comparing Within- And Between-Person Variability, Nadine Lavan, Mila Mileva, Andrew W. Young, A. Mike Burton, Carolyn Mcgettigan

School of Psychology

Human faces and voices are rich sources of information that can vary in many different ways. Most of the literature on face/voice perception has focused on understanding how people look and sound different to each other (between-person variability). However, recent studies highlight the ways in which the same person can look and sound different on different occasions (within-person variability). Across three experiments, we examined how within- and between-person variability relate to one another for social trait impressions by collecting trait ratings attributed to multiple face images and voice recordings of the same people. We find that within-person variability in social …

The Co-Development Of Hedgedate, A Public Engagement And Decision Support Tool For Air Pollution Exposure Mitigation By Green Infrastructure, Yendle Barwise, Prashant Kumar, Arvind Tiwari, Fahad Rafi-Butt, Aonghus Mcnabola, Stuart Cole, Benjamin C.T. Field, Justine Fuller, Jeewaka Mendis, Kayleigh J. Wyles

School of Psychology

No abstract provided.

Age-Related Changes In Ongoing Thought Relate To External Context And Individual Cognition, Adam Turnbull, Giulia L. Poerio, Nerissa Sp Ho, Léa M. Martinon, Leigh M. Riby, Feng V. Lin, Elizabeth Jefferies, Jonathan Smallwood

School of Psychology

No abstract provided.

Secondary Analysis Of Loot Box Data: Are High-Spending “Whales” Wealthy Gamers Or Problem Gamblers?, James Close, Stuart Gordon Spicer, Laura Louise Nicklin, Maria Uther, Joanne Lloyd, H Lloyd

Peninsula Medical School

IntroductionLoot boxes are purchasable randomised reward mechanisms in video games. Due to structural and psychological similarities with gambling, there are fears that loot box purchasing may be associated with problematic gambling. Whilst monthly expenditure is typically modest (i.e. < $20), the distribution is highly skewed, with a small number of high-level spenders, sometimes referred to as “whales”. It is not known what proportion of industry profits are derived from such players, and whether they are typically wealthy individuals and/or problem gamblers.MethodsWe used structured literature searches to identify surveys of gamers with open-access loot box data. The resulting datasets were aggregated, and correlations between loot box expenditure, problem gambling and earnings investigated using Spearman’s rho correlations.ResultsThe combined open-access data comprised 7,767 loot box purchasers (5,933 with self-report earnings). Secondary analysis of this self-report data confirmed that disproportionate revenue appears to be generated from high-level spenders: the top 5% of spenders (> $100/month) represent half of loot box revenue. Previously reported correlations between problem gambling and loot box expenditure were confirmed, with an aggregate correlation of ρ = 0.34, p < .001. In contrast, there was no significant correlation between loot box spend and earnings ρ = 0.02, p = .10.ConclusionOur secondary analysis suggests that games developers (unwittingly or not) are disproportionately profiting from moderate and high-risk gamblers, rather than high earning customers. Such patterns of spending mirror those observed with gambling revenues, and have implications for harm minimisation and ongoing policy debates around loot boxes.