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Description
This dissertation examines Japanese preschool teachers' cultural practices and beliefs about the pedagogy of social-emotional development. The study is an interview-based, ethnographic study, which is based on the video-cued mutivocal ethnographic method. This study focuses on the emic terms that Japanese preschool teachers use to explain their practices, such as amae (dependency), omoiyari (empathy), sabishii (loneliness), mimamoru (watching and waiting) and garari (peripheral participation). My analysis suggests that sabishii, amae, and omoiyari form a triad of emotional exchange that has a particular cultural patterning and salience in Japan and in the Japanese approach to the socialization of emotions in early childhood. Japanese teachers think about the development of the class as a community, which is different from individual-centric Western pedagogical perspective that gives more attention to each child's development. Mimamoru is a pedagogical philosophy and practice in Japanese early childhood education. A key component of Japanese teachers' cultural practices and beliefs about the pedagogy of social-emotional development is that the process requires the development not only of children as individuals, but also of children in a preschool class as a community. In addition, the study suggests that at a deeper level these emic concepts reflect more general Japanese cultural notions of time, space, sight, and body. This dissertation concludes with the argument that teachers' implicit cultural practices and beliefs is "A cultural art of teaching." Teachers' implicit cultural practices and beliefs are harmonized in the teachers' mind and body, making connections between them, and used depending on the nuances of a situation, as informed by teachers' conscious and unconscious thoughts. The study has also shown evidence of similar practices and logic vertically distributed within Japanese early childhood education, from the way teachers act with children, to the way directors act with teachers, to the way government ministries act with directors, to the way deaf and hearing educators act with their deaf and hearing students. Because these practices are forms of bodily habitus and implicit Japanese culture, it makes sense that they are found across fields of action.
ContributorsHayashi, Akiko (Author) / Tobin, Joseph (Thesis advisor) / Eisenberg, Nancy (Committee member) / Nakagawa, Kathryn (Committee member) / Fischman, Gustavo (Committee member) / Swadener, Elizabeth (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
This thesis analyzes how several well-known biographies of popular nineteenth-century British literary figures overturned and upset the usual heroic literary biographies that typified the genre during the Victorian era. Popular public opinion in the nineteenth century was that literary biographies existed as moral guideposts--designed to instruct and edify readers. Richard D. Altick's theory of biographical conventions of reticence--which contends that ultimately literary biographies were committed to establishing or preserving an idealized image of the author--is utilized to explore the nuances of how certain radical biographies in which the biographer is forthright about the subject's private life displeased and disturbed the public. In order to illustrate this study's central argument, several literary biographies that were considered among the most radical of the late Victorian period--John Forster's Life of Charles Dickens, James Anthony Froude's Life of Carlyle, Mathilde Blind's George Eliot, and John Cordy Jeaffreson's The Real Shelley--are analyzed as case studies. These biographies of writers' lives made heroic figures appear human, vulnerable, petty, et cetera by exposing private life matters in a public biography--something that was not done in an age that called for discreet biographies of its literary icons. Victorian periodicals such as magazines and newspapers assist in ascertaining just how the British public reacted to these biographies, and the ramifications they possessed for worshipping literary idols. Additionally explored are the implications that candid literary biographies had for Victorian author-worship and the role of literature, authors, and biography in British society. This study concludes with a discussion of the implications that these candid literary biographies had into the early twentieth century with the publication of Lytton Strachey's "deflated" biography, Eminent Victorians, published in 1918, and summarizes overall findings and conclusions.
ContributorsLeTourneur-Johnson, Jessica Ann (Author) / Warren-Findley, Jannelle (Thesis advisor) / Codell, Julie F. (Committee member) / Szuter, Christine (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
The nucleon resonance spectrum consists of many overlapping excitations. Polarization observables are an important tool for understanding and clarifying these spectra. While there is a large data base of differential cross sections for the process, very few data exist for polarization observables. A program of double polarization experiments has been conducted at Jefferson Lab using a tagged polarized photon beam and a frozen spin polarized target (FROST). The results presented here were taken during the first running period of FROST using the CLAS detector at Jefferson Lab with photon energies ranging from 329 MeV to 2.35 GeV. Data are presented for the E polarization observable for eta meson photoproduction on the proton from threshold (W=1500 MeV) to W=1900 MeV. Comparisons to the partial wave analyses of SAID and Bonn-Gatchina along with the isobar analysis of eta-MAID are made. These results will help distinguish between current theoretical predictions and refine future theories.
ContributorsMorrison, Brian (Author) / Ritchie, Barry (Thesis advisor) / Dugger, Michael (Committee member) / Shovkovy, Igor (Committee member) / Davies, Paul (Committee member) / Alarcon, Ricardo (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
To address sustainability issues in wastewater treatment (WWT), Siemens Water Technologies (SWT) has designed a "hybrid" process that couples common activated sludge (AS) and anaerobic digestion (AD) technologies with the novel concepts of AD sludge recycle and biosorption. At least 85% of the hybrid's AD sludge is recycled to the AS process, providing additional sorbent for influent particulate chemical oxygen demand (PCOD) biosorption in contact tanks. Biosorbed PCOD is transported to the AD, where it is converted to methane. The aim of this study is to provide mass balance and microbial community analysis (MCA) of SWT's two hybrid and one conventional pilot plant trains and mathematical modeling of the hybrid process including a novel model of biosorption. A detailed mass balance was performed on each tank and the overall system. The mass balance data supports the hybrid process is more sustainable: It produces 1.5 to 5.5x more methane and 50 to 83% less sludge than the conventional train. The hybrid's superior performance is driven by 4 to 8 times longer solid retention times (SRTs) as compared to conventional trains. However, the conversion of influent COD to methane was low at 15 to 22%, and neither train exhibited significant nitrification or denitrification. Data were inconclusive as to the role of biosorption in the processes. MCA indicated the presence of Archaea and nitrifiers throughout both systems. However, it is inconclusive as to how active Archaea and nitrifiers are under anoxic, aerobic, and anaerobic conditions. Mathematical modeling confirms the hybrid process produces 4 to 20 times more methane and 20 to 83% less sludge than the conventional train under various operating conditions. Neither process removes more than 25% of the influent nitrogen or converts more that 13% to nitrogen gas due to biomass washout in the contact tank and short SRTs in the stabilization tank. In addition, a mathematical relationship was developed to describe PCOD biosorption through adsorption to biomass and floc entrapment. Ultimately, process performance is more heavily influenced by the higher AD SRTs attained when sludge is recycled through the system and less influenced by the inclusion of biosorption kinetics.
ContributorsYoung, Michelle Nichole (Author) / Rittmann, Bruce E. (Thesis advisor) / Fox, Peter (Committee member) / Krajmalnik-Brown, Rosa (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
Cerebral palsy (CP) is a non-progressive neurologic disorder characterized by motor pathway damage prior to functional development. Damage to the central nervous system impairs motor functioning, including control of motor movement, loss of coordination, and loss of purposeful posture in individuals with cerebral palsy. This creates abnormal walking gait, impaired balance, and loss of muscle control. Current research shows positive results in studying the use of rhythmic music and walking gait for individuals with neurologic disorders. However, most research focuses on neurologic disorders acquired later in life, such as post-stroke patients and individuals with Parkinson's disease and traumatic brain injuries. The current study addresses the impact of rhythmic music on walking gait for an individual with cerebral palsy. Research addresses whether the use of rhythmic music impacts: (a) endurance (laps, distance traversed, and steps taken) (b) cadence (steps per minute), (c) velocity (distance over time), (d) emotional responsiveness (positive or negative affect), and (e) motivation. The current study is a single subject, mixed method design under randomized treatment conditions. The subject is a 25-year-old female diagnosed with spastic diplegic cerebral palsy. The subject participated in a five-week study, three times a week for one hour each session. Assessment was conducted during the first session. The following 14 sessions included gait training either under treatment (the use of recorded rhythmic music accompanied by audible drum beat) or control (no music) randomly assigned prior to the beginning of the study. Data were collected through video recordings, subject and researcher journals, and emotional responsiveness surveys. Data were analyzed for treatment versus control conditions. Analysis of both quantitative and qualitative data indicated that rhythmic music does impact walking gait for individuals with cerebral palsy. When compared to control conditions, the treatment conditions showed an increase in endurance, cadence, and velocity, and improvement in affect and motivation.
ContributorsTindal, Sevrina (Author) / Crowe, Barbara (Thesis advisor) / Rio, Robin (Committee member) / Stauffer, Sandra (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
This thesis describes an approach to system identification based on compressive sensing and demonstrates its efficacy on a challenging classical benchmark single-input, multiple output (SIMO) mechanical system consisting of an inverted pendulum on a cart. Due to its inherent non-linearity and unstable behavior, very few techniques currently exist that are capable of identifying this system. The challenge in identification also lies in the coupled behavior of the system and in the difficulty of obtaining the full-range dynamics. The differential equations describing the system dynamics are determined from measurements of the system's input-output behavior. These equations are assumed to consist of the superposition, with unknown weights, of a small number of terms drawn from a large library of nonlinear terms. Under this assumption, compressed sensing allows the constituent library elements and their corresponding weights to be identified by decomposing a time-series signal of the system's outputs into a sparse superposition of corresponding time-series signals produced by the library components. The most popular techniques for non-linear system identification entail the use of ANN's (Artificial Neural Networks), which require a large number of measurements of the input and output data at high sampling frequencies. The method developed in this project requires very few samples and the accuracy of reconstruction is extremely high. Furthermore, this method yields the Ordinary Differential Equation (ODE) of the system explicitly. This is in contrast to some ANN approaches that produce only a trained network which might lose fidelity with change of initial conditions or if facing an input that wasn't used during its training. This technique is expected to be of value in system identification of complex dynamic systems encountered in diverse fields such as Biology, Computation, Statistics, Mechanics and Electrical Engineering.
ContributorsNaik, Manjish Arvind (Author) / Cochran, Douglas (Thesis advisor) / Kovvali, Narayan (Committee member) / Kawski, Matthias (Committee member) / Platte, Rodrigo (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
This dissertation is a comparative study of three contemporary women filmmakers: Puerto Rican Frances Negrón-Muntaner, Chicana director Lourdes Portillo, and Brazilian director Helena Solberg. Informed by transnational theory, politics of location, feminism on the border, and approaches to documentary filmmaking, the study examines three filmic texts: Brincando el charco: Portrait of a Puerto Rican (1994), The Devil Never Sleeps/El diablo nunca duerme (1994), and Carmen Miranda: Bananas Is My Business (1994). Each film is narrated by a female voice who juxtaposes her personal and transnational identity with history to tell her migration story before and after returning to her country of origin. An objective of the study is to demonstrate how the film directors vis-á-vis their female protagonists, configure a United States Latina transnational imaginary to position their female protagonists and themselves as female directors and as active social agents. Further, the dissertation explores how the filmmakers construct, utilizing the cinematographic apparatus, specific forms of resistance to confront certain oppressive forms. The theoretical framework proposes that transnational documentary filmmaking offers specific contestatory representations and makes possible the opening of parallel spaces in order to allow for a transformation from multiple perspectives. Through the utilization of specific techniques such as archival footage, the three directors focus on historical biographies. Further, they make use of experimental filmmaking and, in particular, the transnational documentary to deconstruct hegemonic discourses. Lastly, transnational cinema is valued as a field for cultural renegotiating and as a result, the documentary filmmakers in this study are able to reconfigure a transnational imaginary and propose an alternative discourse about history, sexuality, family structures, and gender relations. In sum, my dissertation contributes to Chicana/o and U.S. Latina/o, American Literature, and other Ethnic Literatures by focusing on migration, acculturation, and multicultural dialogue.
ContributorsValenzuela Pulido, Norma A (Author) / Hernández-G, Manuel De Jesús (Thesis advisor) / Foster, David W. (Committee member) / Mcelroy, Isis (Committee member) / Sanchez, Marta (Committee member) / Elenes, C. Alejandra (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
Many methods of passive flow control rely on changes to surface morphology. Roughening surfaces to induce boundary layer transition to turbulence and in turn delay separation is a powerful approach to lowering drag on bluff bodies. While the influence in broad terms of how roughness and other means of passive flow control to delay separation on bluff bodies is known, basic mechanisms are not well understood. Of particular interest for the current work is understanding the role of surface dimpling on boundary layers. A computational approach is employed and the study has two main goals. The first is to understand and advance the numerical methodology utilized for the computations. The second is to shed some light on the details of how surface dimples distort boundary layers and cause transition to turbulence. Simulations are performed of the flow over a simplified configuration: the flow of a boundary layer over a dimpled flat plate. The flow is modeled using an immersed boundary as a representation of the dimpled surface along with direct numerical simulation of the Navier-Stokes equations. The dimple geometry used is fixed and is that of a spherical depression in the flat plate with a depth-to-diameter ratio of 0.1. The dimples are arranged in staggered rows separated by spacing of the center of the bottom of the dimples by one diameter in both the spanwise and streamwise dimensions. The simulations are conducted for both two and three staggered rows of dimples. Flow variables are normalized at the inlet by the dimple depth and the Reynolds number is specified as 4000 (based on freestream velocity and inlet boundary layer thickness). First and second order statistics show the turbulent boundary layers correlate well to channel flow and flow of a zero pressure gradient flat plate boundary layers in the viscous sublayer and the buffer layer, but deviates further away from the wall. The forcing of transition to turbulence by the dimples is unlike the transition caused by a naturally transitioning flow, a small perturbation such as trip tape in experimental flows, or noise in the inlet condition for computational flows.
ContributorsGutierrez-Jensen, Jeremiah J (Author) / Squires, Kyle (Thesis advisor) / Hermann, Marcus (Committee member) / Gelb, Anne (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
Consumer goods supply chains have gradually incorporated lean manufacturing principles to identify and reduce non-value-added activities. Companies implementing lean practices have experienced improvements in cost, quality, and demand responsiveness. However certain elements of these practices, especially those related to transportation and distribution may have detrimental impact on the environment. This study asks: What impact do current best practices in lean logistics and retailing have on environmental performance? The research hypothesis of this dissertation establishes that lean distribution of durable and consumable goods can result in an increased amount of carbon dioxide emissions, leading to climate change and natural resource depletion impacts, while lean retailing operations can reduce carbon emissions. Distribution and retailing phases of the life cycle are characterized in a two-echelon supply chain discrete-event simulation modeled after current operations from leading organizations based in the U.S. Southwest. By conducting an overview of critical sustainability issues and their relationship with consumer products, it is possible to address the environmental implications of lean logistics and retailing operations. Provided the waste reduction nature from lean manufacturing, four lean best practices are examined in detail in order to formulate specific research propositions. These propositions are integrated into an experimental design linking annual carbon dioxide equivalent emissions to: (1) shipment frequency between supply chain partners, (2) proximity between decoupling point of products and final customers, (3) inventory turns at the warehousing level, and (4) degree of supplier integration. All propositions are tested through the use of the simulation model. Results confirmed the four research propositions. Furthermore, they suggest synergy between product shipment frequency among supply chain partners and product management due to lean retailing practices. In addition, the study confirms prior research speculations about the potential carbon intensity from transportation operations subject to lean principles.
ContributorsUgarte Irizarri, Gustavo Marco Antonio (Author) / Golden, Jay S. (Thesis advisor) / Dooley, Kevin J. (Thesis advisor) / Boone, Christopher G. (Committee member) / Basile, George M. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
The marimba has garnered increased attention in percussion performance over the past thirty years. Literature for beginners through professionals in a multitude of styles have been written. With the ever-growing number of marimbists since the 1980's there has been a high demand for new works. Numerous pieces were created through commissions: composers contracted to write music by individuals, institutions, and consortia. Three primary types of marimba solo music were written: unaccompanied solos, concerti, and marimba solos with electronic accompaniment. Since electronic music is relatively new in marimba performance, there is very little information published regarding this topic. Only a handful of well-known compositions in this genre have been widely performed, and a great number of existing works are unfamiliar to the percussion world. The goal of this study is to generate an overview of electronic music in marimba performance by compiling a chronological catalog of compositions written for solo marimba with electronics. In addition, this study wishes to promote this genre of solo marimba music through the commission, performance, examination, and recording of a new work for marimba and electronics. It is the author's wish to bring this topic to percussionists' attention, and to enrich the marimba solo literature by both exploring existing literature and encouraging the commissioning and performance of marimba music.
ContributorsChen, Yi-Chia (Author) / Smith, J.B. (Thesis advisor) / Bush, Jeffery (Committee member) / Hackbarth, Glenn (Committee member) / Hill, Gary (Committee member) / Sunkett, Mark (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011