The thesis examines the intricacies involved with the language barriers experienced by patients with Limited English Proficiency (LEP) in medical encounters in the U.S. It examines the evidence showing the impact that language barriers have on both the quality of care and the satisfaction with care experienced by patients with LEP. It also presents an overview of the laws regulating these interactions and its limitations. It further examines the pros and cons of the use of interpreters as the primary strategy developed to operationalize these regulations, including lack of funding for medical interpreters, lack of appropriate training and certification, and language diversity. Additionally, language barriers are examined in the context of cultural differences that permeate all social encounters. One key finding of this review is that communication problems are not only an issue for the LEP population, providing health-care for all patients involve sharing information among multiple health-care providers, patients and their families. However, it is well-documented that LEP makes health-care communication exponentially more challenging. The work concludes with some possible solutions to improve the quality of care and satisfaction of patients with LEP.

As a writer and reader of young adult (YA) literature, I find it is impossible to ignore the rise of traditional masculinity within new, adolescent heroines. In the 21st century, readers have seen the rise of supposedly strong female characters—heroines who carry assault rifles and avoid their emotions. By relinquishing their emotions and their flaws, these heroines have sacrificed the qualities about themselves that initially made them appear so interesting. My desire to see more realistic heroines like myself developed into a creative fiction project that follows and acknowledges the voices of feminine heroines. I call these protagonists “female strong.” My project—a collection of linked short stories—is peopled with the types of heroines that are severely lacking in YA novels and in the film industry. In my own short stories, I have embraced the narratives about young women who are both strong and emotional. I wanted to create memorable female characters that the reader could root for simply because of their feminine strength, even if their flaws were naivety, or lack of confidence, or even if they failed to achieve their resolution in the end. Female-strong characters are vital because they present a view of women who aren’t purely fantasy; they are placed in the real and are feminine, too. In other words, they don’t have to be a gorgeous, knockout model who can kick butt; instead, they can derive strength from their intellect, or their intuition, or perhaps even from their emotion.

This thesis and creative project consists of two components. The first is a written analysis of Bosnian identity. It uses primary and secondary sources to get to the question of what it means to be a Bosnian. Readers can expect to learn about the last century and a half of Bosnian history, and how various leaders and experiences have molded the Bosnian people. The work is the combination of six months of research, and four months of writing. I chose this research as I am Bosnian and wanted to learn more about my culture. Through my research, I found that there is a strong Bosnian identity among people. This identity has been present throughout history, even through wars and political turmoil. Ultimately, the writing portion gives readers a background on Bosnian history, and then focuses on the history of identity. The second portion of the project is a two week unit lesson on Yugoslavian history. This lesson includes background on the region, as well as a guide on how an educator may choose to teach this region of the world. The lessons focus primarily on the last one hundred years, but they also include a broader overview of times prior to this. Not only this, but this section includes PowerPoints, lessons, and supplemental readings. The unit can be taught all together, or it can be broken down and lessons can be taken and taught during the time period they apply to. The goal of the two projects is to come together as one. Educators who are unsure about Bosnia can use the writing portion to gain more knowledge, and they can even assign this portion as a reading for more gifted students. The thesis project ultimately explores Yugoslavian and Bosnian history. Although the Unit does not directly align with identity, it does show students that identity plays a major role in this region, especially through the song lesson on day three. The goal of this project was not only to allow myself to gain more knowledge about this region, but to give educators the opportunity to teach a part of the world that is rarely taught in greater detail.

This thesis grew out of my own experiences of the sudden loss of a loved one. It turns to the philosophy of Martin Heidegger and Paul Tillich to examine how vertical and meditative thought, respectively, aid in interpreting art to overcome such a tragic event. The first section of this thesis begins with an explanation of how I came to realize that my capacity to understand and interpret life had been restricted by a lens of calculative thought. The second section of this thesis addresses the philosophical lessons about depth in thought in the vertical plane that Paul Tillich teaches us about, and is combined with Martin Heidegger's teaching about the difference between being studying in meditative versus calculative thought. Following their explication on the importance of our elusive capacity, the third section is reserved for becoming aware of how to practice our capacity of meditative and vertical depth in thought through the art of poetry. The final section concludes with a discussion of the importance of involved thinking, along with a poem I created using a meditative mind frame.

Techno-scientific thinking, which has become firmly grounded in modern medicine, moves towards reifying medicine as a science, losing all aspects of what it means to heal beyond curing a patient’s physical malady. A blueprint has been made on how best to interact with patients, a formulaic way of approaching medicine that seeks to get to the bottom of the patient’s biological disease. But this blueprint is the very reason doctors and patients misrecognize the potential befriending suffering has to heal the psychological dis-ease the patient feels when confronted by suffering. Thus, the process of treating patients is in need of reform. To do this, we must recover the dimension of depth that has been seemingly lost in the medical field. Doctors and patients alike should be critical of this systematic way of thinking about the doctor-patient relationship, a way of thinking that has far more implications than typically recognized. Science itself is not the problem; rather, it is thinking that says science is the only way one ought to approach and understand medicine and the only way to cure patients when there is much more to healing than curing.
In befriending suffering, one has the opportunity to re-understand herself and reorient herself to the world. Through dialogue, one can befriend her suffering and attempt to hear what it might be saying to her. Furthermore, by being a virtuous friend to her suffering, being one who is sincere, reverent, tender, and effortful, one can discover the generative aspects of suffering. By turning toward suffering together, the doctor and patient can connect in a way that better helps them understand themselves and each other. By understanding themselves and their individual suffering, each has the possibility of becoming a more authentic person and living more meaningfully in their daily lives. In understanding each other, the doctor has the potential to heal her patients—and patients, one could say, have the potential to heal their doctors as well. To do this, both must enter into conversation openly and with the virtues of friendship in mind. It may be difficult, but each one’s worldview might expand and new insights gleaned. By coming together, each has the possibility of living better individually.

Bloodstain pattern analysis can provide telling evidence from a crime scene based on the clues left in the blood, but the field itself is highly problematic since the evidence extracted is dependent upon the interpretation of the analyst. Although some aspects of this type of analysis have been scientifically supported, most are not seen as positively accurate. Since certainty is the basis for acceptance of courtroom testimony, it is important that these unsettled aspects become more understood. This experiment examines the diameter of a weapon and how it affects its cast-off pattern. Weapons with four different diameters were used to generate 5 sample patterns under controlled conditions from each weapon diameter for a total of 20 patterns consisting of 3,367 droplets. The length and width of the pattern, the total number of droplets in the pattern, and the percentage of each droplet type (classified into low-velocity, medium-velocity, and high-velocity droplets) were recorded, averaged, and compared to each other individually using a t-test difference of two means assuming unequal variances. The results reveal that a higher percentage of droplets greater than 4 mm may indicate the use of a weapon with a wider diameter. The data also shows differences between the weapons that may be related to other factors besides the diameter of the weapon such as surface area or the curvature of the weapon. Still, more testing must be conducted to support these theories.

My thesis argues Romanticism and feminism are utopian allies, and Romanticism, understood as a philosophical movement, should be recognized as an essential aspect of critical feminist theory. I claim feminism must be understood as holding an undischarged utopian potential, liberated and inspired by a dynamic neo-Romanticism. This critical discourse gives birth to Romantic-feminism, which reinterprets Romantic works and rereads feminist theory, cultivating their shared revolutionary aspirations. While the claim that feminism buoys Romanticism—potentially creating a space for a singularly genuine kind of Romantic thought—is fairly bold, the core of this project rests upon an argument of even greater magnitude: feminism is as in need of Romanticism as Romanticism is in need of feminism. In fact, feminism is in desperate want of the revolutionary, aesthetic, and utopian vision of Romanticism, and a reinvented, reinvigorated feminism capable of confronting grave contemporary issues will not be possible without philosophical and artistic Romantic influence. A dynamic and progressive feminism not only betters Romantic texts, but provides the only possible condition for the realization of genuine revolution within Romanticism as a whole . As such, the second half of this project focuses on close readings of three poems by 19th-century women: “On Being Cautioned Against Walking on an Headland Overlooking the Sea because it was Frequented by a Lunatic” by Charlotte Smith, “The Lily” by Mary Tighe, and “Lines of Life” by Letitia Elizabeth Landon. Approaching these Romantic works will necessitate an openness and welcoming of both tradition and the strange, a critical emphasis on intersectional feminist concerns, an innovative critique of modernity informed by Marxist and socialist thought, a willingness to transform (the text, the self, and the world), and revolutionary and utopian desires.

This paper outlines the development of a software application that explores the plausibility and potential of interacting with three-dimensional sound sources within a virtual environment. The intention of the software application is to allow a user to become engaged with a collection of sound sources that can be perceived both graphically and audibly within a spatial, three-dimensional context. The three-dimensional sound perception is driven primarily by a binaural implementation of a higher order ambisonics framework while graphics and other data are processed by openFrameworks, an interactive media framework for C++. Within the application, sound sources have been given behavioral functions such as flocking or orbit patterns, animating their positions within the environment. The author will summarize the design process and rationale for creating such a system and the chosen approach to implement the software application. The paper will also provide background approaches to spatial audio, gesture and virtual reality embodiment, and future possibilities for the existing project.

It seems that we are incessantly scolded about the importance of the American political process and its virtue of practicality in contemporary society. Whether through the accumulation of the so-called facts about the issues that inform the veneration of the contest between candidates, the stern and noble duty of becoming an activist performing dreary tasks, or the religious fervor surrounding the sacred obligation of voting, we are assured and reassured that our system is sound and that we must only confront problems of implementation rather than structural ones. From here, the narrative goes that if we subscribe to the doctrine of exclusively employing the efficient, strictly rational, and the immediately realistic, we will almost assuredly succeed in persuading others toward producing the resolutions required to solve our shared challenges. Admittedly, these ideas serve a role in addressing the issues we face. However, when unaided by sophisticated and nuanced notions and applications of the fantastic, the beautiful, the ideal, the possible, the playful, the useless, in a word, dreaming, we foreclose the possibility of building a future that can qualitatively improve society and more meaningfully elevate our being-with-one-another in the world. Therefore, this work aims to validate the aforementioned claim by engaging in a critical, political, and hermeneutic exploration of what it means to dream against the backdrop of present-day American politics. It will honestly seek to analyze the prevailing notions of contemporary western thought and action to work on the way toward a new, yet latent, way of understanding. This understanding would fundamentally revolutionize the task of civilization as being grounded upon the appropriate channeling of our desires and dissatisfactions toward actualizing the projections of our imagination. Simply put, this project seeks to repudiate the mandate of work as toil and order as oppression to clear the way for envisioning a more suitable alternative.

The following research seeks to understand the increase in political disengagement, or political apathy, in younger generations of American citizens, with political apathy defined as disinterest and/or lack of caring to vote, advocate, or engage in topics or actions affiliated with politics. Given the historical roots of the U.S. and the struggle of many individuals to gain and hold on to the rights to vote and advocate in the political sphere, it is somewhat puzzling that political apathy is on the rise. Hence, I pose the question of why younger voters, in particular, are disinterested in politics. In doing so, I explore past historical events that correlate with decreases in voter turnout that may have also influenced the start of political apathy. Additionally, I adopt an interdisciplinary lens that draws on the political philosophy of Thomas Hobbes and Karl Marx, the writings of Sigmund Freud, and more current research from the psychological literature on attitudes and associations and from political science. A broader aim of this paper is to increase awareness of political apathy and the potential consequences that younger and future generations may face, as a result.