cometadata/datacite-titles-descriptions-related-identifiers huggingface dataset:
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c40-375365
title: Examination of Spanish literacy and language proficiency of African-American students at Versatile Innovative Education Accelerated Charter High School

description: There is a growing interest in the quandary of literacy and proficiency amongst K-12 students in the United States. Similarly, because of uncharted research about biliteracy amongst African-American students in urban schools and benefits of Spanish fluency, communicative gaps are increased and fluency is breached. If advantages are properly considered, students will realize that learning a second language yields preparation for global socioeconomic access, breaks down barriers of communication, and affords ever-increasing potential in a world of ever-changing expectations. This is true for all students, particularly African-American students, especially when very little is known about cultivating biliteracy, the context that supports literacy, or pedagogical practices that yield desirable results in World Language Programs. ❧ The context of this study is an urban high school affording access with cultivating biliteracy for Africa-Americans. Teachers, students, and administrators lend insight into how biliteracy is supported. The focus of this study examines barriers that African-American students face when pursuing a second language. By studying the barriers that students and leaders of this institution have encountered when aspiring to be biliterate/bilingual, this research may better prepare students for acquisition and communication beyond the school setting. ❧ The student body at Versatile Innovative Education Accelerated (V.I.E.A.C.H.S.) is over 95.41% African-American. The first language of the majority is African-American English. School teachers, former students, current students, and current administrators were asked a series of questions to ascertain the specific learning sequences that lead to biliteracy. In this study, responses to these questions are thought to reveal insight and foresight into the literacy needs of African-American students and articulate the implications of this work for World Language Teachers.❧ The methodology for this study was a mix-method design. There were quantitative and qualitative data collected and analyzed. Surveys were sent to 20 participants within this charter district. From the surveys returned, purposeful sampling was used to select 11 participants for one-on-one interviews.
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c40-140232
title: Non-acceptance of patients' behavior by their families
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c40-143928
title: Sex education and counseling for the spinal cord injured an exploratory study
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c40-324615
title: Probabilistic machine learning for robotics

description: While learning in robotics has always been seen as one of the hallmarks to accomplish autonomous behaviors, so far, there is no coherent and robust approach to robot learning. For instance, realizing complex behaviors, such as manipulation skills, often involves a mixing and matching of planning, control, and learning modules, dominated by the insights of the robotics researcher, but not by a coherent design and/or algorithmic principle. Thus, most robot learning approaches have largely remained a proof-of-concept rather than a general research approach towards robot learning. ❧ In this thesis we aim to move towards a motor skill learning framework coherently routed in probabilistic representations. The use of probabilistic graphical models for different learning modules can foster a principled combination of these modules to form an integrated approach to skill representations. Towards this goal we will present contributions from two directions: Creating computationally efficient approximations of probabilistic graphical models and developing probabilistic solutions to problems in motor skill learning. ❧ In the first part of this thesis, we will present probabilistic approaches to two subproblems of motor skill learning. We introduce a probabilistic version of dynamic movement primitives. With the help of this formulation we can implement online movement recognition and perform segmentation of complex skill sequences into movement primitives. ❧ The second part of this thesis is concerned with our work on scaling up learning in graphical models such that the use of a complex graphical model is feasible—as would be required for complex motor skill representations with perceptual coupling. We tackle the problem of learning internal models, exemplified by inverse dynamics learning. Having a good inverse dynamics model ensures that we can execute trajectories in an accurate yet compliant manner. We present two types of probabilistic approaches for this real-time learning scenario.
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c40-347735
title: Understanding the 3D genome organization in topological domain level

description: Genome-wide proximity ligation assays, such as Hi-C or TCC (i.e. Genome wide chromatin conformation capture), allow the identification of chromatin contacts at unprecedented resolution. Several studies reveal that mammalian chromosomes are composed of topological domains (TDs) in sub-mega base resolution, which appear to be conserved across cell types and to some extent even between organisms. Studying topological domains is now a begging and an important step toward understanding the structure and functions of spatial genome organization. ❧ In this thesis, as the first work, we propose an efficient and deterministic method, TopDom, to identify TDs, along with a set of statistical methods for evaluating their quality. TopDom is much more efficient than existing methods and depends on just one intuitive parameter, a window size. TopDom also identifies more and higher quality TDs than the popular directional index algorithm. The TDs identified by TopDom provide strong support for the cross-tissue TD conservation. Finally, our analysis reveals that the locations of housekeeping genes are closely associated with cross-tissue conserved TDs. ❧ As the second project, we present a population based 3D genome structure modeling pipeline for further understanding of individual 3D genome structures in nucleus. We implement a method described in Kalhor et al. Nature Biotechnology 2012 and Tjong et al. PNAS 2016 and wrap the whole pipeline as a single pipeline software for general user to examine the individual 3D genomes structure variability easily. The PGS generate a population of 3D genome structures in TD level based on a probabilistic framework that uses Hi-C data. It is fully automated and simplifies individual processing steps and job submissions into a single straightforward execution.
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c40-117053
title: Exploration of the opinions and recommendations of licensed clinical social workers regarding doctoral education in social work
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c40-139222
title: A Survey of Los Angeles Area Administrators' Perceptions Regarding the Nature and Extent of Citizen, Community and Other Inputs Utilized in the Development of Agency Policy and Decision Making: Residential Institutions for Children
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c40-153038
title: A comparison of problems of adopted and non-adopted children seen in a child guidance clinic
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c40-160168
title: A comparative study of the foster grandparent program in two settings
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c40-312306
title: Transmissions: player agency from the outside

description: Transmissions is a nonlinear interactive narrative for Android phones, in which the player receives messages from an alien fleet trapped in a space-time distortion. Instead of acting through a player-character, the player remains outside the story world, and receives transmissions from different possible versions of events, out of chronological order. Observed transmissions become canon, and can affect future events. The player starts at the end of the story, with a transmission from the future, and as they observe past transmissions, they can immediately see the effects of their choices on future events. Though other aspects may change the player’s perception of how much they can influence the story, player agency in a branching narrative is, at its core, the ability to choose what story content they see, with consequences. Transmissions aims to both challenge and explore the concept of player agency in an interactive narrative by removing the player-character from the story entirely; showing the timeline of possible events; and allowing the player to start from the end of the story and work backward.
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c40-125653
title: Room for one more: A study of three alternative Jewish organizations
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c40-138193
title: Social factors influencing the physical functioning of a group of discharged spinal cord injury patients
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c40-150387
title: Demonstration and evaluation of a human sexuality seminar for licensed clinical social workers
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c40-247967
title: Faculty-administrator interactions in an RCM environment: a case study

description: Responsibility centered management (RCM) represents one of the three most highly utilized budgetary models in higher education, with one quarter of public doctoral institutions employing the model. It has been hailed as an effective and efficient fiscal management model. The purpose of the study was to explore what emerged from the interactions between faculty and administrators in an RCM environment, particularly in regard to the sharing of governance and decision making. Three related sub-questions were utilized: How is shared governance defined and perceived by the study participants?; How do trust, communication and dialogue impact the interactions between faculty and administrators?; and, How are faculty-administrator interactions impacted by an RCM environment? The study used a qualitative case study research design, with interviews serving as the primary information source of the investigation. Findings indicated that faculty-administrator interactions in an RCM environment are complex and not easily negotiated. Constituent voice was identified as integral to the shared governance process; trust and transparency surfaced as essential to a functional and collaborative environment; and, a shared participatory leadership model was recommended to facilitate institutional success in an RCM model. An unexpected finding revealed a tension among the non-tenured, field and clinical faculty lines with the tenure line faculty. Studying the human dynamics that take place between the faculty and administrators in an RCM environment provided a deeper insight and understanding of the institutional setting and the elements that impact its organizational success.
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c40-312656
title: Thin film polymer electrochemical impedance sensors for microfluidic measurement

description: Implantable sensors for around the clock tracking of patient health enables clinicians to uncover oft overlooked trends and provide timely treatment. However, the in vivo setting presents a stiff challenge for any long term implant due to the aqueous environment and the aggressive immune response. ❧ This work presents the development of several sensing technologies to address these challenges in the form of electrochemical based transduction. Despite advancements in material selection and fabrication techniques, few sensing systems have been able to achieve reliable, long term recordings of biosignals. An overview of the measurement principles and fabrication methods was discussed in chapter 2. In the following chapter, a method for measuring electrochemical impedance with inductively coupled coils was investigated. While this technique is limited to near field applications, it is widely applicable to many resistive or conductive measurement schemes. In chapters 4 and 5, the development of a bubble based transducers for pressure and flow monitoring were presented. The effects of long term soaking were examined and a multi sensor system for tracking hydrocephalus was presented.
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c40-350876
title: Improving the quality of health care services through inclusive leadership in a diverse organizational context

description: To meet the needs of children from low-income and diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds, health care organizations continually strive to develop more ethnically diverse workforces to match their clientele. Achieving a diverse workforce, however, can result in new service delivery challenges such as increased staff conflict, distrust, and turnover, which can decrease staff engagement in quality improvement efforts and ultimately result in poorer service quality and effectiveness. One way to channel workforce diversity into positive outcomes is by creating an inclusive workplace. Although inclusion has been linked to several beneficial outcomes, such as increased job satisfaction, retention, and innovation, its role has yet to be examined with improving the quality and effectiveness of health care services, and little is known about how organizational leaders can promote workplace inclusion. The dissertation features a three-study design: Study 1 examined the extent to which inclusion influences the quality and effectiveness of health care services; Study 2 examined the extent to which leadership and inclusion influence innovation and ultimately the quality and effectiveness of health care services; and Study 3 explored in greater depth the nature of inclusive leadership. Using a longitudinal mixed-methods design, the dissertation focuses on a pathology and laboratory medicine department of one of the most diverse pediatric hospitals in the United States. Initially, quantitative surveys of hospital staff members were used in Study 1 and Study 2 (survey data was collected at three time points at 6-month intervals), followed by qualitative interviews and observations with diverse samples of hospital staff members for Study 3. Findings from Study 1 support inclusion as being a critical factor for increasing innovation, job satisfaction, and perceived quality of care. In addition, results from Study 2 demonstrate the positive longitudinal effects of inclusive leadership on creating an inclusive work environment, thereby increasing innovation, job satisfaction, and perceived quality of care. Last, Study 3 took a more in-depth approach to examining inclusive leadership and highlighted several specific leadership characteristics that promote workplace inclusion. This information can be used to help inform workplace interventions designed to improve inclusion and ultimately the quality and effectiveness of pediatric health care services.
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c40-354124
title: Switchable and stackable reflective color filters for a transparent full-color reflective display

description: Due to the booming of mobile and wearable devices, energy‐efficient displays that can be used under both indoor and outdoor lighting conditions is urgently needed. In this thesis, we proposed a transparent full‐color reflective display, which can be mounted on top of a conventional transmissive display to build a hybrid display. The hybrid display can operate in either transmissive or reflective mode, and the top display can either work solely as a full‐color reflective display or be switched into a transparent state and behaves merely as a transparent film. A tri‐layer architecture was proposed for the top transparent reflective display to achieve high optical efficiency. And my Ph. D work proved the feasibility of this proposal on the transparent stacked‐layered full‐color reflective display. ❧ 2D TiO₂ gratings were designed as the blue, green and red reflective color filters, based on simulations using finite difference time domain (FDTD) method. The design focused on the filter performances on brightness, color saturation, viewing angle and contrast ratio. The designed filters were switchable via altering the background indices of the gratings. Trade‐offs and optimizations were mad during the design to achieve balanced performances. ❧ Fabrication processes were developed, based on nanoimprint lithography (NIL), interference lithography (IL), reactive ion etching (RIE), etc. Different types of NIL processes were designed for the final accomplishments of the proposed filters, as well as methods to tune the grating linewidth precisely, and accurate etching recipes of different materials. Filters based on different materials were experimented, and the optimized solutions were obtained. ❧ The fabricated blue, green and red filters exhibit high brightness, high color saturation, high contrast ratio during the switch operation, and wide viewing angles. In addition, ultra‐high resolution far beyond human eye perception was achieved, and continuous gray scales were also demonstrated. We also demonstrated the construction of different colors from the stacked switchable color filters, as well as the feasibility to integrate the filter stack to a transmissive display to build a hybrid display.
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c40-138816
title: Exploratory study on the emotional effects of infertility on women
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c40-368689
title: Spurt in homelessness among sex offenders in California

description: This paper explores how homelessness is a growing problem among sex offenders in California. Most of the federal, state and local policies that are aimed at curbing sex crimes, have had the unintended consequence of increasing transience among felons.
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c40-379052
title: The life and choral works of Gabriel Jackson, 1962-2016

description: Gabriel Jackson is one of the most prolific composers in contemporary British choral music. He has over eighty works published with Oxford University Press and over fifty of those publications have been recorded with major classical record labels. He has been commissioned by many notable ensembles. In addition, Jackson was honored to be the Associate Composer of the BBC Singers from 2010 to 2013. Gabriel Jackson has also been nominated for eight British Composer Awards and won three times. ❧ While Jackson is well known in the United Kingdom and continental Europe, he is still virtually unknown here in North America. The purpose of this study is to bring to light the large body of works composed by Gabriel Jackson and to more fully expose his craft to North American conductors and audiences. The scope of this study is a biography of Jackson’s life, an insight into his musical influences, an annotated catalog of his choral music, and an analysis of four selected compositions.
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c40-104138
title: Social work functions in nonprofit hospitals
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c40-154298
title: Intimacy in lesbian relationships
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c40-330843
title: Sensor technologies for determining cyclist power output: a comparison of smartphone, opposing force and strain gauge power measurement technologies using spatial analysis

description: Smartphones have revolutionized the way users interact with the world and have helped pave the way for hundreds of new and exciting mobile applications. A complex array of sensors exists within smartphones, including GPS, barometer, accelerometer and other positional sensors that are leveraged by these mobile applications. These sensors are capable of providing location, speed, gradient, altitude, and acceleration data that are foundational for providing a new generation of mobile fitness applications. One such example is the development of cycling power meter applications within the sport of road biking that provides new insights into the real time power expenditure and overall cycling efficiency. This research focuses on the potential of using a smartphone and opposing force power meter (OFPM) as a replacement for traditional and expensive direct force power meters (DFPM) that have been the “de facto” standard over the last ten years. Field collected power meter cycling data, combined with spatial analysis, is used to compare various dimensions of power meter accuracy, GPS road network accuracy, elevation agreement, and cost. The overall results of this field study showed that using a smartphone power meter application performed within +/- 10% on average when compared to a traditional DFPM meter, but only when the application had access to high quality location and speed data from the smartphone’s GPS sensors. The results also showed that on average, the OFPM system performed within +/- 2% on average when compared to the DFPM reference power meter but was challenged with data latency on quick changing terrain and accelerations. Concluding the research, a summary analysis is provided as a way for cyclist to quickly understand how well each power meter performed and to determine if a specific power meter system is better suited for a rider’s individual needs.
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c40-44678
title: Cults and the Jewish community: A study of the Task Force on Cults and Missionary Efforts
DOI: 10.26300/eg7t-bm85
title: Video and Supplementary Files from "A 3D fish liver model for aquatic toxicology: Morphological changes and Cyp1a induction in PLHC-1 microtissues after repeated benzo(a)pyrene exposures"
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c40-136494
title: The Service Needs of Stroke Families: A Pilot Study
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c40-151488
title: A Project to Identify Potentially Abusive Parents
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c40-156996
title: A comparative study of Chicano youth gangs in East Los Angeles: 1940 and 1972
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c40-157673
title: Continuancy and discontinuancy in a community-based rehabilitation program with an undifferentiated client group
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c40-335965
title: The power of collaboration: teacher reflective practice, professional learning communities and instructional rigor

description: The purpose of this study was to investigate teachers’ perception of reflective practices on instructional rigor both individually and in PLCs. The data explored the two research questions based on teacher reflective practice individually and in PLCs. Triangulation of data from interviews, focus groups, observations, and artifacts provided a deeper understanding of reflective practices. The study used purposive convenience sampling of secondary teachers who work in an urban school district, are in PLCs, and utilize reflective practices. The goal of the study was to understand how teacher reflective practice influences instructional strategies toward increasing rigor and college readiness for Latino students’ achievement.
DOI: 10.25549/gar-c81-5647
title: John Burroughs, postcard, to Hamlin Garland

description: John Burroughs, West Park, New York, USA, postcard, [no year] March 28, to Hamlin Garland, 71 East 92nd Street, New York Manhattan, New York, USA. "I am struggling with the problem of that income tax -- first line.
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c40-160478
title: A study of the clientele served by an out-patient mental health agency
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c40-346986
title: Improving cellular uptake of MCoTI-based cyclotides

description: Cyclotides are a unique family of peptides characterized by containing a cyclic cysteine knot motif and being highly stable. Out of the three families of cyclotides, the focus of this project has been the trypsin inhibitor family of cyclotides, which has been shown to be able to penetrate cells while not having any cytotoxic effects. MCoTI-I, a member of this family, consists of six mutable loops. This project focuses on the understanding and improving the uptake mechanism of this peptide through site directed mutagenesis on the cyclotide and through grafting or attaching already known cell penetrating peptides to the cyclotide. This project has shown that the cellular uptake of the cyclotide MCoTI-I can be improved using various methods that also allow for biologically active sequences to be grafted to the cyclotides. This results in the production of stable compounds able to target intracellular protein-protein interactions.