Digital Commons Network^™

An Exploration Of Instagram As An Active Learning Tool For Gaining New Political Knowledge, Sarah Olearnick

Open Access Master's Theses

This paper seeks to explore the way that Instagram can be an active learning platform for the political landscape. By surveying URI students this study looks at the various ways that students use Instagram for politics, their attitudes towards the platform as a political source, and their general interest in politics. The survey showed that those who have a higher interest in politics use various sources. The survey also showed that those who have a positive perception of Instagram as a political source do not use various other sources. This study serves as an extremely valuable launching point for additional …

Rise Above: A Patient-Centered Web-Based Intervention For Reducing Internalized Stigma In People With Epilepsy, Sabah Ummie

Open Access Master's Theses

Telemedicine and e-health has grown significantly over the last few decades with the evolution of information and communication technology. The application and implementations of information technologies have given rise to the delivery of remote patient care and contactless online healthcare service, during the uncontrolled outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic. Innovations in healthcare have proliferated during that period and enabled physicians to provide treatments for patients starting from primary care to cognitive disability.

Health related stigma, also known as internalized stigma, is a common cognitive illness in people with epilepsy (PWE), a neurological disorder that induces sudden unpredictable seizures within the human …

The Structure, Constraints, And Suggestions Of The Indian Medical Textile Product Industry With A Focus On Fabric Manufacturers, Poonam Parab

Open Access Master's Theses

Medical textiles are specialty fabrics and products doctors, nurses, and other healthcare workers use. These include bandages, surgical gowns, hospital sheets, artificial hearts, and hernia meshes. India has been a global textile manufacturing hub and has recently shifted its focus to medical textile/ textile products. However, there is no clear understanding of the basic structure of the Indian medical textile product industry related types of companies involved and their interactions with each other. The information about the industry needs to include categorization and depth, and there is no value chain-related information. A well-integrated value chain improves efficiency and effectiveness, which …

The Subtle Distinctions Of Memoir: Reclassifying Jeannette Wall’S The Glass Castle, Anna Cornelia Salvati

Scripps Senior Theses

In this paper, I will begin by exploring the history of memoir, the rise of the “misery memoir,” and I intend to challenge the generalized use of the term. Though the cultural rise of trauma memoirs is real, the genre cannot be a blanket term for memoirs that discuss trauma. I have selected The Glass Castle as my evidence because although it includes disturbing details, Walls effortfully tries to reorient the reader’s focus. The term misery memoir is inadequate to describe The Glass Castle because it is not about misery. It obscures Walls’s message that in order to achieve self-acceptance …

Aus Deutschland Nach Westen: Eine Analyse Der Westen-Abenteuerliteratur Von Friedrich Gerstäcker, Ruby Hoffman

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis investigates the construction of masculinity and its role in the construction of the image of America in two books by Friedrich Gerstäcker (Flußpiraten des Mississipi and Streif- und Jagdzüge durch die Vereinigten Staaten Nord-Amerikas). The portrayal of men in these books reflects a largely traditional and hegemonic masculinity, but it contains a number of nuances that complicate that model. With particular attention to the interaction of this masculinity and nature in the American backwoods, a particular image of a successful, real, American man becomes visible. This thesis analyzes how Gerstäcker’s outsider (German)—but immersed—perspective produces a familiar …

The Writing Brain: Writing As An Exercise Of Functional Network Optimization To Facilitate Psychologically Healing Effects, Isabelle Antolin

Scripps Senior Theses

James Baldwin wrote, “When you’re writing, you’re trying to find out something which you don’t know” (as cited in Plimpton 1989). Writers, like James Baldwin, have for a long time acknowledged that writing has some psychological effect. However, the neural basis of this effect has yet to be understood. Neuroimaging studies have examined writing as a creative process, identifying a predominantly left fronto-parieto-temporal network activation during writing tasks (including brainstorming, drafting, and revising). Importantly, one study examining poetry composition found that a generative phase of writing was associated with a significant anti-correlative activation pattern between the dorsal attention network (DAN) …

Opinions On The Halfshell: Examining Public Perceptions Of Southern New England Aquaculture Development, Callan J. Yanoff

Open Access Master's Theses

With the recent expansion of aquaculture in New England, it has become increasingly difficult for aquaculture growers with farm proposals to advance past the permitting process due to public opposition. The substantial lack of innovative strategies for understanding and addressing the public’s perceptions of aquaculture development in the Northeast has created conflict in expanding sustainable farming. Through 15 focus group discussions during the summer of 2021, this study assesses how people who live in Rhode Island and Massachusetts think about farm design and examines their attitudes towards aquaculture impacts and governance. By identifying the general public’s preferences and perceptions, findings …

Rapid Automatized Naming (Ran) And Real Word Reading Fluency: An Eye-Tracking Study, Alexia Martins

Open Access Master's Theses

Although literacy skills, as typically measured by reading accuracy and fluency, are known to greatly influence a child’s later academic and social success, national literacy rates continue to decrease across grade levels. Research has shown that serial rapid automatized naming (RAN) is one of the best predictors of reading fluency; however, there is significant variability regarding the specific relationship between RAN and reading as noted between meta-analyses, age groups, RAN stimuli, and measures of socioeconomic status (SES). This study aims to investigate the relationship between serial RAN and 1) real word reading fluency and 2) socioeconomic status (SES) across thirty-three …

Care-Portal: A Clinician-Centered Digital Health Portal For Wearable Data Analytics, Shejar Sadhu

Open Access Master's Theses

Growth of “e-health” (electronic health) is unprecedented especially after the COVID-19 pandemic. Wearable technology such as smartwatches and smart finger rings have the capability to remotely monitor and quantify biometric and daily life activity parameters such as heart rate, body temperature, sleep, exercise, sedentary periods, and others from patients when they are in naturalistic environments such as home, school, work, and sports. This wearable technology can also be used to remotely monitor longitudinal symptomatic changes in chronic and acute conditions such as neurological and psychiatric disorders that may require some indicators of psychological stress in daily life settings. Wearable technology …

The Alice Atom Compendium, Nick Mendillo

Open Access Master's Theses

Using an original work of fiction, a novel I had written titled The Alice Atom, I have created multiple levels of media that encompass several aspects of said novel’s central theme – the desire to find meaning in not only products we create but the act of ‘following one’s dream.’ To achieve a personal goal is to follow, chase, or accomplish their ‘dreams,’ but I intended to explore the question of what that pursuit can tangibly look like. The action of the novel involves the protagonist literally searching for a woman he has imbued with deep philosophical meaning. I, …

Diving In: Learning Best Practices From Belize’S Managed Access Program Fisheries Policy, Mary Carper

Open Access Master's Theses

Belize has recently transitioned from an open access fisheries management regime to a program called Managed Access, based on a form of spatial management known as Territorial User Rights for Fishers (TURFs). Coastal communities rely on fishing activity for a variety of reasons including food and job security. Community well-being refers to the holistic definition of the human state, indicated by a variety of socioeconomic factors. This multi-strategy research with a concurrent nested design looks at a combination of interview and archival document data, along with demographics from the Statistical Institute of Belize in order to understand the impacts of …

The 1697 Project: Unraveling A Mystery Surrounding A Set Of Patchwork Blocks, Katherine E. Williams-O'Donnell

Open Access Master's Theses

The University of Rhode Island’s Historic Textile and Costume Collection (HTCC) recently accessioned a grouping of disarticulated patchwork blocks that once belonged to a coverlet. The coverlet was assumed to have been created in 1697 in British North America, making it the oldest firmly dated patchwork currently known to exist and placing this art form in the European colonies fifty years earlier than previously documented. However, because the blocks were disarticulated with companion pieces spread between numerous collections, it was crucial to analyze the blocks in depth to understand if this origin story was correct or had been manufactured later …

Measuring And Modeling Turbulence Using Particle Image Velocimetry And Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics; Applications To External Flows, Sandra Deeb

Open Access Master's Theses

Understanding the flow field around objects (i.e. external flow) is very important for various engineering and scientific application at all scales. The overall objective of this study is to better understand the flow field and turbulence in a wave-current flume for internal and external flow studies using particle image velocimetry and to investigate the capabilities and limitations of the Lagrangian smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) method to simulate external flows using the collected experimental data in the wave-current flume. Laboratory studies are useful for observation of physical phenomena in a controlled environment in addition to their being less expensive and more …

Unmasking Covid-19: The Pandemics Effect On Mental Health Through The Lens Of Social Media, Jamie Vittoria Swanberg

Open Access Master's Theses

This study examined the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on mental health through the lens of social media. This study content analyzed user posts related to depression on Twitter during 2019 and 2020 to determine if there was an increase in tweets about depression due to the pandemic. A total of 2,000 tweets were randomly selected using the keyword or hashtag “depressed” and “depression”. A sample of 1,000 tweets from April 18 to December 31, 2019, and another sample of 1,000 tweets from April 18 to December 31, 2020, were analyzed. Using the Uses and Gratifications Theory as a framework, …

The Home Literacy Environment's Effect On Language And Literacy Outcomes In Monolingual And Bilingual First And Second Grade Students, Sarah Carney

Open Access Master's Theses

The Home Literacy Environment (HLE) is well researched to support early literacy development in children (e.g., Niklas et al., 2020; Inoue et al., 2018). The majority of research has investigated how the HLE supports children’s preschool literacy development and skills upon entry to kindergarten; however, few research studies have addressed how the HLE contributes to vocabulary, phonological awareness, and reading scores in Spanish-English bilingual first and second grade students. Our present study aims to answer two questions; if Parental Occupation Education (POE) and the HLE affect performance on inside out (phonological awareness and decoding) and outside in (language and vocabulary) …

Transnational Construction Site: Building American/Buying Chinese At The Panama Canal, 1885-1887, Jenny Elkus

Open Access Master's Theses

This thesis is a case study in ethnic relations and identity formation. It attempts to problematize Jewish American immigration history by examining the actions and personal development of one 19th century Jewish immigrant, not through the literature of Jewish American immigration, but through the history and literature of the Chinese migrants with whom he interacted. In 1885, Dr. Felix A. Bettelheim launched a year-long venture to obtain 5,000 Chinese contract laborers to work on the construction of the Panama Canal. This thesis is an attempt to understand how, as a migrant and a member of a persecuted minority himself, Bettelheim …

First Destination Survey 2022: For Degrees Awarded December 2021-August 2022, Hart Career Center, Illinois Wesleyan University

First Destination Survey

[from the email sent by Warren Kistner]

The Hart Career Center is responsible for producing an annual First Destination (graduate) survey that tracks the post-graduate activity of our students within a six-month window of commencement. Following this collection period, we work to produce a report that provides our university community with vital information about the success of our graduates and allows us to address questions posed by prospective students and families. I am pleased to share our report for the class of 2022. Based on data obtained for 88.1% of our graduates, 97.3% are either employed or in graduate/professional school …

An Examination Of Retention And Cumulative Grade Point Averages For Dual Enrollment Students At Public Two-Year Institutions Of Higher Education In Tennessee, Matthew Pryor Hunter

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

Postsecondary institutions are measured in part by their students' success and retention rates and seek to employ best practices with their students to prepare them for academic success. Federal, state, and local government programs have produced guidelines for preparing students who are academically ready to enter the workforce. Research findings demonstrate that most students are likely to take more than three years to complete associate degrees and up to six years to complete their baccalaureate degrees. Thus, students who participate in dual enrollment programs tend to complete their degrees sooner than those who do not participate in dual enrollment programs. …

The White Elephant In The Classroom: A Case Study On Understanding Whiteness To Become An Antiracist Teacher In The Rural Classroom, Jean Ann Little

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

While the public-school classroom has increasingly become more diverse, the teaching population has not. Research studies on race and its role in the classroom have been necessary considering the predominantly white teaching force and the opportunity gap that exists in the education outcomes of students of color and that of their white peers; furthermore, a gap in rural and urban studies on white teachers working with students of color provided the additional impetus for the study. This study seeks to add to the emerging field of second-wave white teacher identity studies. The purpose of this case study was to discover …

Financial Market Liquidity, Informed Trading, And Stock Price Crash Risk: Evidence From Corporate Tone, Exchange Competition, And Corporate Culture, Rasheek Irtisam

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

Prior literature documents a temporary spike in information asymmetry between sophisticated and unsophisticated traders around corporate disclosures because the former process new information faster. In Essay 1, using advances in textual analysis, we show that when management issues more uncertain financial statements, the resulting spike in information asymmetry is significantly lower than for firms which use less uncertain text. Furthermore, textual uncertainty measures of the disclosures are negatively associated with Intermarket Sweep Order (ISO) volume, an order type commonly used by sophisticated traders. This suggests sophisticated traders and algorithms are less able to extract value-relevant information from financial disclosures when …

Radical Rhetoric And The Syrian Revolution: Toward A Telos Of Solidarity, Noor Ghazal Ghazal Aswad

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

Transnational rhetorical scholarship has yet to enact solidarity with the subaltern. “Inclusionary” efforts have actively excluded what I term the “radical subject,” the subject revolting against repressive hegemonic forces to achieve liberatory change in society. As an intervention, this dissertation conceptualizes the Syrian revolution as a rhetorical performance which enacts a theory of its own agency and possibilities, an expression of a liberatory moment where radical subjects rose from under an authoritarian regime’s historic rule. Within this rhetorical performance, the radical subject serves as the chief protagonist, a subject whose rhetoric is informative of both practice and theory. The Syrian …

High School Teachers' Perceptions And Application Of Robert Stahl's Decision-Making Materials In The Social Studies Classroom, Alisha Milam

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

This study investigated high school social studies teachers’ perceptions of Robert Stahl’s decision-making materials within their content area and the relevance of curricular implementation. The primary questions addressed in this study focused on high school social studies teachers’ perception of current instructional practices, inquiry-based learning, state standards, and national frameworks regarding content and classroom instruction. The participants included seven rural high school social studies teachers selected through two-stage random sampling. Participant selection was reduced to rural areas due to the overwhelmingly disproportionate number of rural districts in the state of study. However, to gain a diverse perspective from across the …

Mask On, F*Ck It, Mask Off: Assessing The Role That Hip-Hop Plays In The Identity Development Of Young Black Professionals, Re'sean James Jetson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

Young Black professionals are faced with unique challenges in navigating their ethnic and professional identities, especially in the workplace. They are underrepresented in high-status professional jobs and often assume they must adhere to behavioral and linguistic norms associated with the dominant culture in order to be accepted in predominately White workspaces. The process of adjusting one’s style of speech or behavior based on the social setting is known as code-switching. This study examined the experience of code-switching for young Black professionals in non-diverse workspaces with particular attention to the role of Hip-Hop. Hip-Hop has served as a tool for identity …

Understanding Anger And Psychosocial Functioning In A Sample Of Post-9/11 Veterans Using Ecological Momentary Assessment, Rebecca J. Zakarian

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

Anger is an important aspect of the negative emotion associated with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and difficulties with anger regulation are implicated in more severe PTSD trajectories as well as associated problems such as aggression perpetration. Anger is also known to erode social relationships and is implicated in poorer psychosocial functioning and having fewer close relationships. From a diagnostic conceptualization, anger is included in both the hyperarousal symptom cluster (e.g. irritability and angry reactions) and the negative alterations in cognitions and mood symptom cluster (e.g. negative emotions like anger, fear, shame, etc). Although anger is included in the diagnostic symptoms …

Dyadic Differences In The Perception Of Stress-Related Reactions Among Black Youth With High Body Weights, Kaytryn Doreese Campbell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

Black youth with high body weights (BYHW; BMI ≥ 95th percentile) endure unique stressors that may contribute to psychopathology, but more research is needed on factors associated with fewer stress-related reactions among these youth. Utilizing linear regression modeling and controlling for youth BMIz scores, the current study examined how resilience and weight-related quality of life were associated with stress-related reactions as reported by 32 treatment-seeking BYHW (Mage = 14.19; MBMIZ = 2.59) and one of their primary caregivers (N = 64). Findings showed that dyadic differences exist in what BYHW and their caregivers perceive as associated with youth stress-related reactions. …

Longitudinal Examination Of Psychosocial Factors, Diabetic Ketoacidosis, And Urinary Albumin-To-Creatinine Ratio Trajectories Among Adolescents With Type 1 Diabetes, Katherine Semenkovich

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

Vascular complications result in significant morbidity and mortality in individuals with type 1 diabetes. Certain measures such as the urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio can assess risk for later diabetes complications by determining the amount of protein leaking from the kidneys (an early sign of kidney damage). Based on a conceptual framework, this study used growth curve and latent variable mixture modeling to evaluate individual and family characteristics, psychosocial responses, individual and family responses, and metabolic variables (hemoglobin A1c and DKA hospitalizations) that predict urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio (ACR) trajectories over the span of three years. Adolescents (N = 142) 12-18 years old …

Voices From The Classroom: Perspectives Of Elementary Teachers On Teacher Absenteeism, And The Related Factors Of Leadership Behaviors And Teacher Preparation, Amanda Brabham

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

Employee absence can arise in any organization or institution; however, in education, teacher absenteeism place burdens on schools and hinders the ability of schools to provide quality and consistent instruction to students. Teacher absenteeism has been a topic of discussion in the West Tennessee study school district for many years. School and district leaders have pondered over what can be done to improve the attendance behaviors of teachers. Research asserts that teachers are the most important in-school determinant of student success, and for this reason, school and district leaders in the West Tennessee study district must gain an understanding of …

Operatic Becomings: A Narrative Exploration Of Singers' Personal And Professional Development, Joseph Phaten Dunn

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

Prior research has demonstrated that the highly competitive professional environment faced by musicians and music students can increase risk for a variety of mental health concerns. However, therapists know relatively little about this population, the stressors they face, or how musicians and music students navigate and make meaning of the diverse stressors they encounter personally and professionally. The present narrative inquiry (NI) study, explored the experiences of five advanced classical operatic trainees as they navigated diverse personal, professional, and mental health concerns while pursuing education and employment in this highly competitive discipline. Narrative analysis of collected interview data was grounded …

Social Support As A Moderator Between Maternal Mental Health And Child School Engagement Among Families Exposed To Adversity, Kari Nicole Thomsen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

School engagement is a positive, malleable aspect of youth functioning. The present study examined the direct and interactive relations between social-ecological factors (i.e., maternal depression, maternal anxiety, youth social support) and youth school engagement among families exposed to adversity. Participants were 117 youths (Mage = 9.96, SD = 1.40; 51% female; 88.89% Black), and their female primary caregivers. Hierarchical linear regression modeling revealed a direct, positive relation between child social support and child school engagement. No direct relations were found between maternal anxiety or maternal depression and child school engagement. Social support moderated the relation between maternal anxiety and school …

Dworkin, Dignity, And The Body: Constructing A Critical, Carnal Legal Hermeneutic, Jackson Reese Faust

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

This dissertation argues that an embodied legal subject is necessary to reorient law toward moral justice and describes how this subject alters the interpretation of legal texts. More specifically, it contends that humans’ mutual embodiment and institutionally-mediated vulnerability justifies basing adjudication on lived experience alongside—and given similar interpretive weight as—traditional legal texts. To justify this contention, it argues that Ronald Dworkin’s legal and political thought can be grounded by G.W.F. Hegel’s concept of “ethical life” (Sittlichkeit)—the integrated moral and political community—by dint of Dworkin’s distinctive account of dignity. It then uses this reading of Dworkin to propose a theory of …