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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 …

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 …

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 …

Individual Differences In The Comprehension And Categorization Of Sarcasm, Megan Boatman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

The present study investigated whether exposure to sarcasm can predict a person’s categorization of sarcasm. Participants (N = 44) were asked to complete a picture matching task. In this task, they would listen to a sentence and look at two images. Sentences had pause durations along a six-point continuum scale. One image was a sarcastic interpretation of the sentence, and one was a literal interpretation. They were asked to choose the image they felt best fit the sentence they heard. Afterwards they were asked to fill out a sarcasm self-report scale. It was predicted that stimuli would follow a linear …

Effects Of Stimulus Rate And Periodicity On Auditory Cortical Entrainment And Their Relation To Speech Rhythms, Sara Momtaz Bokharaei

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

The neural mechanisms underlying rapid exogenous coding and the neural entrainment to auditory stimuli have been the subject of controversy. Using inter-trial phase-locking (ITPL) and phase-locking value (PLV) analyses applied to high-density human electroencephalogram (EEG) data, this dissertation investigated the degree to which the brain entrains to speech and non-speech (i.e., click) sounds and how changes in the rate and periodicity of the ongoing streams alter brain oscillation patterns. Temporal processing of cortico-acoustic tracking was investigated in N=24 normal young adults utilizing EEG time-frequency and source analyses that isolated neural activity stemming from both auditory temporal cortices. We manipulated the …

Speech Perception Performance In Ecological Noise, Bhanu Shukla

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

A variety of noises, including multi talker babble (MTB), speech spectrum noise (SSN), and several other environmental auditory scenes that had MTB as the dominant noise, have been used in research in the field of audiology to evaluate speech perception in individuals with normal hearing and hearing loss. These different noises and environmental auditory scenes have been employed independently to evaluate speech perception performance. Given that there are several sounds in the real world that might impair communication, the evaluation of speech perception accuracy should encompass all noises that a listener may encounter in typical conversation. Combining several auditory scenes …

Language Policy And Indigenous Language In The Linguistic Landscape Of Asunción, Paraguay, Perry Hardin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

The field of Linguistic Landscape (LL) has been increasingly used as an effective way of researching, discovering, and better comprehending complex sociolinguistic phenomena. One focus of LL study is the way public displays of language in signs reflect and shape society’s beliefs about language, which in turn influences language practices. In addition, LL research frequently deals with the policies that attempt to influence what languages are used in signs. This study explores the multilingualism and language policy of Paraguay through a sociolinguistic lens by documenting the LL and investigating the factors that influence its construction in the capital city, Asunción. …

Educator Identity Development For International Graduate Teaching Assistants Through Community Of Practice: A Design Case, Jaclyn Joy Gish-Lieberman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

This design case provides a transparent tale of building an international graduate teaching assistant (IGTA) orientation as a virtual Community of Practice (VCoP) during the COVID-19 era. The design case is situated in an English as a Second Language Composition (ESLC) Program at a large midwestern university for new GTAs, both international and domestic. Studies show that IGTAs who do not fit the prototype of GTAs in predominately white institutions (PWI), face marginalization, damaging their sense of belonging and identity as legitimate educators. Their salient social identities as both multicultural and multilingual become oppressed as they attempt to develop their …

Role Of Sex In Rate Of Infant Vocalization And Canonical Babbling, Janine Peca

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

A female language advantage has been widely reported, although it has not been consistently shown across the literature. Perhaps surprisingly, the possibility of sex differences in prelinguistic vocalizations in the first year has not been widely studied. A paper published in Current Biology in 2020 found that infant males produced a significantly larger number of speech-like vocalizations through 12 months of age than infant females based on human coding of randomly-selected samples from all-day recordings. The authors argued that their sampling method offered a maximally representative view of infant vocalization. The present study also investigated possible sex differences in the …

Imagining Identity Beyond The Fishbowl: A Framework For Using Ethnographic Texts For Children To Cultivate A Place Of Inclusion And Belonging, Jacklyn Boggs

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

Bibliotherapy—the use of the literary arts for the purpose of healing—has been used by numerous professionals for a variety of reasons. Psychologists, social workers, educators, and health care professionals have specifically utilized works in the children’s genre as a tool for promoting dialogue with children around difficult topics, such as loss, trauma, oppression, self-abhorrence, and suffering. Children’s books can serve as vehicles for facilitating conversations and safe spaces of inclusion that invite them to explore the complexity of their identities and lives. Of course, not all texts are created equal, and thus this project aims to serve as a framework …

Exploring The Role Of Religious Beliefs And Practices On Family Language Policy, Saad Alamri

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

Earlier Family Language Policy (FLP) research has focused on ethnic identities, mobility, and transnationality, as well as, to a lesser extent, gender and familial kinship; few studies have focused primarily on religion as a factor in FLP processes. Religion is particularly important in the FLP of Muslim families who speak Arabic as a first or additional language, as many of the daily Islamic practices necessitate the use of Arabic. Therefore, this dissertation sets out to investigate the impact of religious beliefs and practices on the FLP of non-Arab Muslim families. I particularly focused on Pakistani expatriate/immigrant families raising their children …

Legacies Of The Death Penalty: Sacrifice, Survival, And The Possibility Of Justice, Sarah Kathryn Marshall

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

Concluding the first year of his seminars on the death penalty, Derrida writes that “even when it will have been abolished, the death penalty will survive.” This dissertation interprets his claim in various contexts and with particular attention to the specificity of Derrida’s discourse on survival or survivance. The first chapter attends to the complicity of the Western philosophical tradition, through the example of Martin Heidegger, in providing the theoretical scaffold for the institution of capital punishment. This chapter also traces a logic of donner la mort, or giving death, from the philosophical level to the social level, working out …

A Qualitative Study Of Critical Consciousness: How Black Leaders Perceive Their Roles In The Sociopolitical Development Of Their Students, Ray Williams

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

Paulo Freire (1970) Pedagogy of the Oppressed explained how his theory of critical consciousness could liberate the low-income Brazilian workers. Freire's theory was that his people should be able to see their culture in their education and be equipped with the tools to analyze the world around them and find their sources of oppression. This research study uses Roderick J. Watts’ theory of Sociopolitical Development (SPD) is a branch of Freire's critical consciousness theory. This research study examines the critical consciousness of ten (10) Black urban school leaders by utilizing a semi-structured interview process to explore their educational and life …

No To Language-Based Discrimination: The Effect Of Multimedia, Perspective Taking, And Itas’ Exposure On Native Speakers’ Attitude Toward L1-Accented Speakers, Shima Farhesh

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

Linguistic stereotyping research posits that native speaker favor standard variety speakers which results in discrimination against non-native speakers (Rubin 2002, Kang & Rubin, 2009). However, it may be possible to improve native speaker attitudes towards accented speech, and through that, accented speakers. Research on improving native speakers’ (NSs) attitudes toward non-native speakers (NNSs) suggests that direct exposure through interpersonal contact (Kang et al., 2015) and indirect exposure may both decrease prejudice towards marginalized groups (Rani & Samuel, 2019). Little is known, however, about the relative effectiveness of different interventions such as video interventions (Multimedia group), intergroup contact through International Teaching …

Language And Cognition In Mild Alzheimer's Disease, Katherine C. Carter

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

Studies investigating cognition relative to language outcomes and language elicitation methods are lacking within persons with mild Alzheimer’s disease (AD). This study investigated: 1) group effects (mild AD, controls) on language measures obtained from picture description, 2) the relationship between cognition and language measures, and 3) task effects (picture description, story retell) on language measures for speakers with mild AD. Results showed that speakers with mild AD had language deficits compared to controls, that MMSE scores correlated with language measures, and that elicitation method influenced language outcomes for speakers with mild AD. Overall, findings suggest that clinical assessments of language …

Archiving The Pandemic: What It Has Meant To Chronicle What We Wish To Forget, Katyayani Suhrud

FIU Law Review

In the summer of 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic and all that it brought it with was still very new, Jindal Global University, where I am a law student, began putting together an archive of this time for the university community. This piece explores what it meant to archive the pandemic while simultaneously living through it, and how other people’s stories and experiences affected my own. Attempting to distance myself from the pandemic did nothing to aid its everyday struggles. Rather, choosing to be intimately involved with how it was affecting the lives of others and also my own proved …

Increase Student Engagement In Online Writing Environments, Jonathan Balzotti, Jason K. Mcdonald, Kevin Haws, Amy Allen Rogers, Matthew J. Baker

Faculty Publications

This case study explores a type of educational simulation, an alternative reality game we call a playable case study (PCS), and how its use influenced student engagement in an online writing classroom. The goal of the simulation was to help students create professional communication artifacts and experience real-world professional communication situations. This article reports the effectiveness of the playable case study as a tool specifically for online writing instruction (OWI). The context of our research was a PCS called Microcore. Acting as interns for a company, students are asked to investigate a serious problem that occurs and present a solution …

Do People With Apraxia Of Speech And Aphasia Improve Or Worsen Across Repeated Sequential Word Trials?, Tyson G. Harmon, Adam Jacks, Katarina L. Haley, Jessica D. Richardson, Elizabeth H. Lacey, Peter Turkeltaub

Faculty Publications

Purpose:

During motor speech examinations for suspected apraxia of speech (AOS), clients are routinely asked to repeat words several times sequentially. The purpose of this study was to understand the task in terms of the relationship among consecutive attempts. We asked to what extent phonemic accuracy changes across trials and whether the change is predicted by AOS diagnosis and sound production severity.

Method:

One hundred thirty-three participants were assigned to four diagnostic groups based on quantitative metrics (aphasia plus AOS, aphasia-only, and aphasia with two borderline speech profiles). Each participant produced four multisyllabic words 5 times consecutively. These productions were …

Mazes In Spanish-English Dual Language Learners After Language Enrichment: A Case Study, Casey L. Taliancich-Klinger, Connie Summers, Kai J. Greene

Faculty Publications

ABSTRACTThe number of Spanish-English dual language learners (DLLs) in the United States continues toincrease every year. In the absence of developmental language norms for DLLs it is importantto learn more about typical language production characteristics to distinguish typical fromatypical language characteristics. An area of language production with conflicting results inthe literature is the production of mazes. Mazes are interruptions in the forward flow oflanguage in the form of interjections, repairs or revisions of words and phrases. At elevatedrates, mazes may interrupt the communication process. A common practice in classroomsettings is to provide support for DLLs through small group activities such …

Poster: Acoustic Source Localization Using Straight Line Approximations, Swarnadeep Bagchi, Ruairí De Fréin

Conference papers

The short paper extends an acoustic signal delay estimation method to general anechoic scenario using image processing techniques. The technique proposed in this paper localizes acoustic speech sources by creating a matrix of phase versus frequency histograms, where the same phases are stacked in appropriate bins. With larger delays and multiple sources coexisting in the same matrix, it becomes cluttered with activated bins. This results in high intensity spots on the spectrogram, making source discrimination difficult. In this paper, we have employed morphological filtering, chain-coding and straight line approximations to ignore noise and enhance the target signal features. Lastly, Hough …

Representation Of Race And Ethnicity In Counseling And Counseling Psychology Journals, Jared M. Hawkins, Roy A. Bean, Timothy B. Smith, Jonathan G. Sandberg

Faculty Publications

Whereas previous literature reviews have concluded that people of color are underrepresented in psychological literature, the fields of counseling and counseling psychology have taken a clear affirmative stance with respect to human diversity. This study sought to evaluate the representation of people of color in four key journals across the 2000-2019 timespan: The Counseling Psychologist, Journal of Counseling Psychology, Journal of Counseling & Development, and Counselling Psychology Quarterly. Journal articles were coded for several variables, including focus on racial/ethnic minority (REM) groups and article content topics. Results indicated that 757 (26.3%) of the articles were coded REM-focused. Of …

An Fmri Investigation Of The Neurocognitive Processing Of Measures And Strategic Objectives, Paul Black, C. Brock Kirwan, Thomas Meservy, William B. Tayler, Jeffrey O. Williams

Faculty Publications

A central feature of most organizations is the use of measures to represent key elements of performance across multiple strategic objectives. Prior research has demonstrated a tendency for individuals to treat these measures as though they are the higher-order strategic objectives the measures were intended to represent, as opposed to imperfect representations of those strategic objectives—a phenomenon labeled surrogation. We employ an experiment to further understand this phenomenon. In this study, we capture neural activation when processing measures and when processing strategic objectives. We find that differences in brain activity when processing measures and strategic objectives are similar to the …

Re-Imagining Andragogy For Innovative And Inclusive Leadership Training For Minority Women In Higher Education, Sylvia Gavigan, Nicholas Kiruma, Liz Murphy, Kingsley Author

Papers

The purpose of this case study undertaken in 2021 was to explore the different ways educators in higher education might implement innovative andragogical practices for inclusive leadership training for minority women. There is need for minority women to develop abilities to make personal adjustments as well as receive support from external structures if they are to benefit from leadership training programs and to be successful leaders (Flower, 2021). The potential for innovation to shift towards a more engaged form of teaching and learning is very important in the 21st Century especially for the inclusion of minority women in leadership in …

Flexible Goal-Directed Manipulation Of Representations: Computational Models Of Healthy And Pathological Human Cognition, Giovanni Granato

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics Theses

The brain is able to manipulate itself, adapting its internal world in a changing environment. In particular it continuously manipulates its representations to achieve goals. This competence is supported by many neurocognitive high-order processes that interact during the performance of a goal-directed behaviour (e.g. attention processes, executive functions, motivational systems). Overall, adult humans often face a new problem trough a change of the `perceptual point of view' (i.e. a representational change), rather then an extended research of the correct action to perform. On the other hand, infants and children contemporary develop motor competence and task-directed perceptual representations (e.g. categorical perception). …

Front Matter

The Writing Center Journal

Front matter for Writing Center Journal 40.3.

Harmonising The Human Biobanking Consent Process: An Irish Experience, Lydia O'Sullivan, Tomás P. Carroll, Niamh Clarke, Sarah Cooper, Ann Cullen, Laura Gorman, Billy Mccann, Blánaid Mee, Nicola Miller, Verena Murphy, Máiréad Murray, Jackie O'Leary, Sharon O'Toole, Emma Snapes, Suzanne Bracken

Research Outputs: 2025-Present

Biobanks are repositories of human biological samples and data. They are an important component of clinical research in many disease areas and often represent the first step toward innovative treatments. For biobanks to operate, researchers need human participants to give their samples and associated health data. In Ireland, research participants must provide their freely given informed consent for their samples and data to be taken and used for research purposes. Biobank staff are responsible for communicating the relevant information to participants prior to obtaining their consent, and this communication process is supported by the Participant Information Leaflets and Informed Consent …

Exploring Pedagogic And Practical Intersections Of Academic Writing Support For Faculty In Higher Education, Roisin Donnelly, Maria-Jose Gonzalez

Journal Articles

This is a case study of Faculty perceptions of the nature and effectiveness of academic writing provision and practice in a university in Ireland. It is presented in tandem with a case study of student persecptions from an Academic Writing Centre and taken together, both discuss the pedagogical approach adopted by the two pan-university initiatives. The focus of this case study is a Professional Development module for Faculty designed with a dual purpose - to support them to develop their own professional writing for publication, and enabling them to use the same strategies to support and reinforce their students’ academic …

Dosage, Intensity, And Frequency Of Language Therapy For Aphasia: A Systematic Review-Based, Individual Participant Data Network Meta-Analysis, The Rehabilitation And Recovery Of People With Aphasia After Stroke (Release) Collaborators

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Background and Purpose: Optimizing speech and language therapy (SLT) regimens for maximal aphasia recovery is a clinical research priority. We examined associations between SLT intensity (hours/week), dosage (total hours), frequency (days/week), duration (weeks), delivery (face to face, computer supported, individual tailoring, and home practice), content, and language outcomes for people with aphasia.

Methods: Databases including MEDLINE and Embase were searched (inception to September 2015). Published, unpublished, and emerging trials including SLT and ≥ 10 individual participant data on aphasia, language outcomes, and time post-onset were selected. Patient-level data on stroke, language, SLT, and trial risk of bias were independently extracted. …