Left Behind: Children of Dominican Deportees in a Bulimic Society
Year of Dissertation:
2011
Advisor:
Nicholas Michelli
The United States has always taken great pride in its children's protection programs that have served as an example to developing countries. As a beacon of opportunity to poor and underdeveloped countries, the country is also known amongst third world nations, as the only hope to achieve social mobility because of its educational and labor market opportunities. Recently, in an apparent contradiction to its protection programs, social, and economic opportunities, the nation has instituted laws that undermine the welfare of children of immigrants and immigrant children by deporting people, regardless of their immigration status.
Construction of a Forced-Choice Task for the Assessment of Factual Understanding and Feigning in Competency to Stand Trial Evaluations
Year of Dissertation:
2011
Psychologists are commonly called upon to conduct evaluations of a defendant's competency to stand trial. Under Dusky v. United States (1960) the legal criteria for competency to stand trial were enumerated and since then, a number of standardized assessment instruments that aim to assess those criteria have been developed, each with its own noted strengths and weaknesses. Although there are several instruments available to aid clinicians in these types of evaluations, only three include screens for feigning, and only one assesses for feigned cognitive impairment. In the current research an instrument was constructed to assess for competence related knowledge, while also incorporating several logical and statistical methods to assess for a feigned lack of knowledge of the legal system, including forced-choice testing, floor effect strategies, and completion time methodologies. The Factual Understanding Instrument (FUI) was constructed over five studies. Studies 1-3 involved instrument construction and included a review of the literature, a critical incidents phase with experts in the field, and item construction. Studies 4-5 focused on item evaluation and included an expert review of the constructed items and the pilot testing of the FUI in a simulation study with unimpaired college students. In study 5, multiple statistical analyses were conducted to evaluate the FUI items and the various feigning detection strategies. In this sample reliability of the FUI was high. Items were relatively easy for honest responding participants, with many scoring near perfect. Feigning participants did not score as low as would be predicted by symptom validity testing, as responses varied from less than 50% correct to values seen in honest responders. Intelligence level, item difficulty, and response condition were found to be significant predictors in responses to FUI items. Completion time was not supported as a feigning detection method as hypothesized, however, alternative interpretations of the theory are offered. Further research on the FUI with a known-groups sample in forensic settings is needed to establish a floor value, to further evaluate item performance, and to improve the external validity of the current research. Research methodologies and future directions are offered.
Enconchados: Political, Cultural, and Social Implications of a New Art in Seventeenth-Century New Spain
Year of Dissertation:
2012
Advisor:
Eloise Quiñones-Keber
Seventeenth-century New Spain (Mexico) saw the rise of an art form that melded traditions from pre-Hispanic, Asian, and European styles. Enconchado paintings, so called because mother-of-pearl is inlaid mostly on canvas stretched on a panel, were produced in workshops in Mexico City and sent to the metropolis as gifts to the monarch or to noblemen. Around 300 of these unique works exist in museums in Europe and in the Americas today. Not surprisingly, the most common subject matter is religious; however, about one hundred of them depict the historical events that lead to the conquest of Mexico by Hernando Cortés. Most scholarship has centered on the Asian and European influences on these works. This project investigates the three-pronged influences in a more egalitarian way, positing as much weight on the indigenous aspects as on the others. Furthermore, it contextualizes the production of these ideological works with the literature, histories, treatises, and other works of art produced in the viceroyalty of New Spain during this century when the rise of the Creole class (people born in Mexico of Spanish-born parents) was beginning to make its imprint in the economic, social, and cultural spheres. By tracing the different threads that make up these works, their ideological impact, as well as their 300-year old histories, this dissertation aims for a better understanding of these works and the forces that made their production possible.
OPTIMIZATION OF USE OF FOURIER TRANSFORM INFRARED TO MEASURE THE COMPOSITION OF FINE PARTICULATE MATTER
Author:
Vilma Arriaran La Torre
Year of Dissertation:
2011
The goal of this dissertation is to evaluate the feasibility of, and develop and optimize a method that uses FTIR to measure the detailed chemical composition of organics and inorganics in ambient fine particulate matter, PM2.5. The use of FTIR will lead to the analysis of a PM2.5 sample using a single technique, without the need for extraction, nondestructively and free of analysis artifacts.
Geometric Interpretation of the Two Dimensional Poisson Kernel And Its Applications.
Year of Dissertation:
2011
Hermann Schwarz, while studying complex analysis, introduced the geometric interpretation for the Poisson kernel in 1890. We shall see here that the geometric interpretation can be useful to develop a new approach to some old classical problems as well as to obtain several new results, mostly related to hyperbolic geometry.
Assessing Emergent Bilinguals: Teacher Knowledge and Reading Instructional Practices
Author:
Laura Ascenzi-Moreno
Year of Dissertation:
2012
Assessments are viewed as primary vehicles for improving the educational outcomes of all students since they can lay the foundation for effective teaching practices. However, assessment can only achieve this effect of supporting student learning if the knowledge that teachers gain from using them is put into direct use in classrooms. This process of administering assessments, analyzing them, learning from the results, and subsequently tailoring instruction based on what has been learned about students is referred to as the assessment-instructional cycle.
Cerebrospinal Fluid Biomarkers for the Differential Diagnosis of Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus and Alzheimers Disease
Year of Dissertation:
2010
Differential diagnosis of Idiopathic Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus (NPH) is complicated by symptomatic overlap with neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimers Disease (AD). Efforts to improve diagnosis through the use of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers have led to the identification of more than a dozen potential diagnostic markers for NPH. However, no single biomarker has proven sufficient for differential diagnosis in clinical practice. The current study uses proteomic analysis of CSF to identify sets of protein markers that are expressed differentially in NPH and AD. Two-dimensional gel electrophoresis was used to analyze the CSF of 8 probable NPH and 8 probable AD patients. Gels were stained with SYPRO Ruby and the percentage volume of over 1339 spots was determined. The Random Forest statistical method was used to identify proteins that optimally segregated NPH cases from AD. Protein identification was achieved by the use of a previously published CSF map and mass spectrometry. Eleven protein spots were found to optimally distinguish the groups, correctly classifying 100% of all NPH and AD samples. Of the 11 proteins of interest, six were identified and include the following: beta-trace, serum albumin A, serum albumin B, apolipoprotein A-IV precursor, pigment epithelium-derived factor, and complement component 3 precursor. The current study identifies CSF biomarkers that differentiate between NPH and AD cases. The highly successful separation of cases obtained in this study suggests that multiplexed CSF markers have the potential to improve the differential diagnosis of NPH from one of its most common competing diagnoses.
MENTORING IN THE LAW ENFORCEMENT CONTEXT: A CASE STUDY OF THE TURKISH NATIONAL POLICE
Year of Dissertation:
2009
The TNP has undergone many changes as a result of Turkey's decision to seek European Union (EU) membership. One ramification of these changes is the TNP codification and implementation of formal mentoring relationships to increase the effectiveness of mentoring relationship.
Postmodern Metafiction Revisited
Author:
Lissi Athanasiou Krikelis
Year of Dissertation:
2013
Program:
Comparative Literature
By its ostensible definition, metafiction is fiction that dramatizes its own construction, proffering constant reminders of its artificiality. The term "metafiction," however, is hardly transparent. "Metafiction" is in danger of having an array of definitions, and, because it is believed to be equated with postmodern fiction, it is often associated with the literature of the eighties and therefore appears outdated. Through an examination of various novels mainly from the twentieth century and literature of the West, this dissertation unifies the multiple definitions that have been assigned to the term and provides a typology that facilitates the identification of the metafictional novel. In addition, this dissertation revisits certain assumptions that have clung to the term arbitrarily, namely that metafiction is ahistorical and apolitical because it is self-referential. Beginning with a theoretical approach that views metafiction as a postmodern phenomenon borrowing from structural and post-structural thought, this study comparatively explores metafiction's most recent manifestations and concludes by questioning metafiction's affinity to postmodernism.
Essays On The Information Flow From Option Markets To Stock Markets
Year of Dissertation:
2010
Informed traders might prefer the option markets over stock markets due to advantages offered by option trading such as reduced transaction costs, enhanced opportunities for taking short positions and higher leverage. The first chapter of this dissertation provides a brief review of the empirical and theoretical literatures related to this question.