Digital Commons Network^™

Knowledge, Attitudes, Beliefs And Behaviors Related To Health Among The Indigenous Peoples In Ecuador And The Potential Application Of Telehealth, Ming-Jai Liu, Erika Mendoza, Kevin Henry, Dale Alverson

Undergraduate Medical Student Research

There is much concern of health effects related to gas drilling in the provinces of Ecuador. Recent research has shown a possible correlation between oil drilling and a multitude of health problems (1). Cancer rates in particular may be elevated in populations exposed to the drilling pollutants; while intriguing, this research remains inconclusive in large partly because of difficulties in diagnosing cancer among other health problems in rural populations, but also due to local peoples perception of exposure. It has been determined that previous explorations between petroleum and cancer had not been approached directly in terms of taking indigenous peoples …

Shadows On The Cave Wall: The Cognitive Accuracy Of Social Network Perception, David M. Ouellette

Theses and Dissertations

How accurately people perceive interpersonal relationships, both among others and with themselves, forms the basis of social inferences about the structure of the social environment and one's place in it. Six hypotheses were tested using the cognitive social structures method from social network analysis with five independent but similar student networks from two universities. Results from all networks were meta-analyzed. Participants gave both their self-reported friendship ratings for every alter in their group and also gave their perceptions of the ratings the other member would give. Perception ratings were correlated to self-report ratings for each participant as a measure of …

President's Weekly Perspective, 2008_07_28, David Schmidly

President Schmidly's Administration

No abstract provided.

Mitochondrial Genomes Reveal An Explosive Radiation Of Extinct And Extant Bears Near The Miocene-Pliocene Boundary, Johannes Krause, Tina Unger, Aline Nocon, Anna-Sapfo Malaspinas, Sergios-Orestis Kolokotronis, Mathias Stiller, Leopoldo Soibelzon, Helen Spriggs, Paul H. Dear, Adrian W. Briggs, Sarah C. E. Bray, Stephen J. O'Brien, Gernot Rabeder, Paul Matheus, Alan Cooper, Montgomery Slatkin, Svante Paabo, Michael Hofreiter

Biology Faculty Articles

Background: Despite being one of the most studied families within the Carnivora, the phylogenetic relationships among the members of the bear family (Ursidae) have long remained unclear. Widely divergent topologies have been suggested based on various data sets and methods.

Results: We present a fully resolved phylogeny for ursids based on ten complete mitochondrial genome sequences from all eight living and two recently extinct bear species, the European cave bear (Ursus spelaeus) and the American giant short-faced bear (Arctodus simus). The mitogenomic data yield a well-resolved topology for ursids, with the sloth bear at the basal …

Access To Women’S Health Information In Monteverde, July 27, 2008, Emily Balf, Janelle Christensen, Stephanie Melton, Kristin Monnard

Monteverde Institute: Culture, Community, and Health

A research project exploring women's health in the Monteverde region.

2008 Summer Commencement, Harding University

Commencement Programs

Program for the Commencement on July 26.

Commencement Speaker: Noel C. Whitlock

Mechanical Properties Of Plant Underground Storage Organs And Implications For Dietary Models Of Early Hominins, Nathaniel J. Dominy, Erin R. Vogel, Justin D. Yeakel, Paul J. Constantino, Peter W. Lucas

Biological Sciences Faculty Research

The diet of early human ancestors has received renewed theoretical interest since the discovery of elevated d13C values in the enamel of Australopithecus africanus and Paranthropus robustus. As a result, the hominin diet is hypothesized to have included C4 grass or the tissues of animals which themselves consumed C4 grass. On mechanical grounds, such a diet is incompatible with the dental morphology and dental microwear of early hominins. Most inferences, particularly for Paranthropus, favor a diet of hard or mechanically resistant foods. This discrepancy has invigorated the longstanding hypothesis that hominins consumed plant underground storage organs (USOs). Plant USOs are …

Shaffer Pleads Not Guilty To Theft, Kenneth Hart

Indian Head Rock Project

Article published in the Ashland Daily Independent on Steve Shaffer's plead of not guilty on felony charges of theft from July 25, 2008.

Wmu Board Of Trustees Formal Session July 25, 2008, Wmu Board Of Trustees

WMU Board of Trustees Meetings

• Recommendation re Tuition - Fall 2008
• Recommendation - Extended University Programs Tuition- Fall 2008
• Recommendation re University Budget 2008-09
• Personnel Report
• Gift Report
• Grant Report

“Books Of The Hour”And “Books Of All Time”: Booklists In The Evolving Library, Sarah Naper, Stephanie Wiegand

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Booklists provide a means of connecting readers with books that best meet their needs. The authors provide an overview of types of booklists and of the relationship between readers and booklists, as well as identifying uses of booklists for librarians. These include use as a collection development tool, for weeding assistance, and to promote library materials. The role of booklists in the interactive environment of Web 2.0 is explored. The article concludes with a discussion of possible concerns that arise from reliance on booklists.

Male Survivors: Walking The Tightrope Of Masculinity, Luke Rogers

Theses and Dissertations

Sexual assault of men is a serious social problem and has drawn well deserved attention from many different researchers as well as the general public. Even though there is much concern and interest in this troubling crime, limited research has been conducted on the long-term effects of sexual abuse on male survivors. Using data collected by the Virginia Department of Health, this study investigated the effects of sexual abuse of men. Specifically, this inquiry examined specific emotional and physical conditions as potential consequences of sexual victimization among men and the extent to which those conditions vary between male victims and …

The Life Of Patricia Morin – A Nursing Dean, Linda Kay Walline

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Women’s approaches to leadership have been distinctly different from men’s. Through women’s stories and women’s lives, we can discover unique and fresh insights about leadership critical for the rapidly changing world. Deans of nursing programs are predominately women. Nursing deans are in key positions to influence both the direction of the schools and the profession itself.

The purpose of this historical study was to describe and analyze the life of Patricia Morin, a nursing dean. The study focused on the meanings of these experiences as well as her role in academic leadership as she perceived and lived it.

The major …

Matoaka: Pocahontas In The Age Of Identity, Matthew Shifflett

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis details the labors of research and judgment that informed the writing of Matoaka, a Play in Three Acts. Specifically, the thesis explores the historical puzzles surrounding the life of Pocahontas and justifies the decisions made in dramatizing her life in the aforementioned play. Non-fictional works of the last four hundred years are considered, as well as popular dramatic performances of the nineteenth century. These works are examined closely in order to reveal the Pocahontas story as a point of contact between many concurrent social discourses. Reflections are also offered on the production of the aforementioned play and its …

Self-Organization": A New Metaphor To Understand The Interdependences Of The Organizations And Their Environments, Tarek Mohamed Ali

Business Administration

Self-organization metaphors have recently emerged to enrich research on organizational environment in particular, with respect to the networking view that presents organizational environment as a complex web of interactions among groups of organizations. The network analysis promotes the group members’ sensitivity to the variety in environmental demands. In an attempt to clarify how self-organization enhances the group’s sensitivity, we propose the interdisciplinary autopoietic and habitus-field models. The proposed self-organization models allow portraying business organizations as networks of decision communications and integrated partners. Self-referential and self-reflexivity processes have been utilized by the models to guide a group of decision makers and …

Washington University Record, July 17, 2008

Washington University Record

No abstract provided.

Metamorphosis: Transforming Non-Designers Into Designers, Martin A Siegel, Erik Stolterman

DRS Biennial Conference Series

In this paper we make the case that there is today a growing number of educational settings experiencing challenges when it comes to transforming non-designers into designers, and in particular, interaction designers. We see this development as a consequence of an increased awareness and recognition of what broadly could be labeled as a design perspective. We examine the transformational process, the metamorphosis, by which non-designer students become interaction designers. We identify and describe the barriers that make it difficult for the students to move through this transformational process. We also propose some pedagogical approaches that can reduce the barriers and …

The Alestle - Vol. 60 No. 71 - 07/16/2008, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville

The Alestle

Vol. 60 No. 71

The Relationship Between The Curriculum, Instruction, And Assessment Provided By Wyoming High School Mathematics Teachers And The Performance Of Wyoming 11th Grade Students On The Adequate Yearly Progress Of Wyoming Schools, Mary C. Moler

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This research study investigated the mathematics teachers’ classroom practices in curriculum, instruction, and assessments by a self-reporting questionnaire. The questionnaire was sent to all 295 Wyoming high school mathematics teachers in February of 2007. There were 164 questionnaires completed by 67 out of the 75 schools contacted.

It also investigated how those practices related to the mathematics portion of school’s Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) on state standards with the federally mandated No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. The researcher calculated scaled average scores on 13 variables related to a 32-question questionnaire. The groups analyzed were sorted into three levels …

Music And The Modern Maya: A Reception Study Of Rock-Maya Music In Guatemala, Malcolm Miguel Botto

Theses and Dissertations

The current global flows of people, capital, technology, images and ideas--a phenomenon described as "mediascapes" by Arjun Appadurai (1996), traverse the most isolated Maya communities in Guatemala. These flows have recently influenced the creation of hybrid media products among the Maya. Among them we find an emerging indigenous musical genre called "Rock-Maya." I use reception analysis methods to document the encoding and decoding of this new indigenous medium of communication. Through qualitative interviews I attempt to show how K'iche'-Maya youth appropriate, what Motti Regev (1997) calls, the rock aesthetic to promote a sense of K'iche'-Maya youth identity in a modern …

When Conventional Procedures Are No Longer The Rule For Application: Design As A Discipline Opens Up To New Possibilities, Natalie Ebenreuter

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This paper discusses the development of the prototype application ‘LabanAssist'. It looks at the design rationale used for the creation of what is fundamentally a system for recording dance knowledge on a score, as identifiable and replicable signs and symbols. A system made necessary because the conventions of other established disciplines, such as engineering and computer science practices, were no longer considered to be effective alone, in facilitating the production of well-designed cultural artefacts (Calvert, Fox, Ryman, & Wilke, 2005; Ebenreuter, 2005). It is important to ask how can we understand design as a discipline amongst other fields of study …

Embodied Conversations: Performance And The Design Of A Robotic Dancing Partner, Joslin Mckinney, Mick Wallis, Sita Popat, John Bryden, David Hogg

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This paper reports insights gained from an exploration of performance-based techniques to improve the design of relationships between people and responsive machines. It draws on the Emergent Objects project and specifically addresses notions of embodiment as employed in the field of performance as a means to prototype and develop a robotic agent, SpiderCrab, designed to promote expressive interaction of device and human dancer, in order to achieve ‘performative merging'. The significance of the work is to bring further knowledge of embodiment to bear on the development of human-technological interaction in general. In doing so, it draws on discursive and interpretive …

Disciplining The Body? Reflections On The Cross Disciplinary Import Of 'Embodied Meaning' Into Interaction Design, Thomas Markussen

DRS Biennial Conference Series

The aim of this paper is above all critically to examine and clarify some of the negative implications that the idea of ‘embodied meaning' has for the emergent field of interaction design research. Originally, the term ‘embodied meaning' has been brought into HCI research from phenomenology and cognitive semantics in order to better understand how user's experience of new technological systems relies to an increasing extent on full-body interaction. Embodied approaches to technology design could thus be found in Winograd & Flores (1986), Dourish (2001), Lund (2003), Klemmer, Hartman & Takayama (2006), Hornecker & Buur (2006), Hurtienne & Israel (2007) …

Making Exhibitions, Brokering Meaning: Designing New Connections Across Communities Of Practice, Anita Kocsis, Carolyn Barnes

DRS Biennial Conference Series

New media museum exhibits often see designers representing the research of expert content providers. Despite perceptions that such exhibits provide museum visitors with a greater depth and range of experience, differences in knowledge and practice between designers and content providers can see content development become an unruly, competitive process in which audience experience, digital mediation, visualisation techniques and meaning become contested territory. Drawing on Etienne Wenger's theory of 'communities of practice', this paper argues that designers' advocacy for audiences and distance from exhibition content well positions them to broker interdisciplinary goal setting so that exhibitions observe the representational objectives of …

The Return Of The Beehives, Brylcreem And Botanical! An Historical Review Of Hair Care Practices With A View To Opportunities For Sustainable Design, Sabine Hielscher, Tom Fisher, Tim Cooper

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This paper considers hair care as a network of activities and routines which have consequences for environmental sustainability and which may be modified by design. It proposes that together with cultural knowledge, embodied skill and objects, these activities can be thought of as ‘practices' that are reproduced and also change through time (Shove 2006). They consume resources and are therefore implicated in the issue of environmental sustainability. The paper draws on research into hair care practices conducted through in-depth interviews with female participants, as part of the first author's PhD study. The discussion here however centres on historical work and …

Designing A Travel Guide To The Un-Natural World: Exploring A Design-Led Methodology, Viveka Turnbull Hocking

DRS Biennial Conference Series

The analogy of designer as tourist in the un-natural world is used as an aid for thinking my way into the nature of design research. An exploration of how the design researcher, like a tourist, travels widely through the un-natural world of thought, theory and concept. If we are to design a travel guide for the un-natural world then what would this guide book look like, why do we need it and how could it work? The paper will propose that a ‘travel guide to the un-natural world' in the form of a design-led methodology is needed for research into …

Authorities/Knowledge/Beliefs/Outcomes: 'Governing' In The Profession Of Graphic Design In The Us, Kate Ann B Lamere

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This exploratory research examines an under-evaluated aspect of graphic design in the United States: the nature of the profession. Discourse analysis that applies the theory of governmentality is used to assess previously collected, open-ended interviews with graphic designers, as well as other source material. Based on the late work of Michel Foucault, governmentality considers how authorities govern through the creation and dissemination of knowledge, which works through individuals' desires and beliefs and leads to unpredictable outcomes. In this research, two ‘authorities' within the graphic design profession are identified and considered – design competitions and graphic design higher education. Both authorities …

Designing In The Street: Innovation In-Situ, Wendy March, Bas Raijmakers

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This paper suggests that taking the design process into the field and constantly engaging with the site to observe, intervene, brainstorm, prototype and create fosters unique forms of inspiration and innovation. How does a consideration of participation of both the designer and the user in the space change the design process? With participation comes understanding of the situation and by elaborating on possible futures with users, designers can find lucid innovations. We describe a project conducted by students from the Interaction Design course at the Royal College of Art in London which used a variety of approaches to speculate on …

Brokering Between Heads And Hearts: An Analysis Of Designing For Social Change, Ann Light, C. Miskelly

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This paper describes a fluid and responsive design process identified among certain practitioners involved in solving social problems or inspiring social change. Their practice is both user-centred and participative in its approach and addresses the shortcomings of many top-down initiatives. These people work tactically to weave together policy knowledge, funding opportunities, local initiative and ideas for improving social and environmental conditions, acting as connectors, activists and facilitators in different contexts at different times. Although their activities are recognisably related to more conventional designing practices, the materials they use in finding solutions are unusual in that they may include the beneficiaries …

Keynote Address: Foreign Bodies / Jewellery As Prosthesis, Christoph Zellweger

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This article, published in Design Research Quarterly (3:4) October 2008, is based on the keynote address given by Prof Christoph Zellweger at the DRS conference in 2008. Design Research Quarterly. Design Research Society ISSN 1752-8445.

Understanding Older Vehicle Users: An Interpretative Approach, Chao Zhao, Vesna Popovic, Luis Ferreira, Xiaobo Lu

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Future adaptations in vehicle design should be linked in some parts to the age-related changes often faced by the older users. The aim of this research is to investigate the multiple age-related changes of Chinese older vehicle users in order to assist designers to better understand current and future older users' needs. Although qualitative interpretative approaches have rarely been applied in the field of traffic gerontology research, they are widely used in current design research to explore persons' lived experiences, behaviours and emotions. Therefore, this study employed qualitative research methods consisting of observation, interview, travel logbook and co-discovery to explore …