cometadata/datacite-titles-descriptions-related-identifiers huggingface dataset:
DOI: 10.25549/whit-m2567
title: A view of the Angelus Temple with radio towers atop the builiding

description: A view of the Angelus Temple with radio towers atop the builiding.; Streetscape. Horizontal photography.
DOI: 10.25549/whit-m2600
title: University of Southern California's (USC's) Mudd Hall

description: University of Southern California's (USC's) Mudd Hall, featuring arched walkway, and campus landscaping.; Streetscape. Horizontal photography.
DOI: 10.25549/whit-m2580
title: A view of a water fountain in front of the Doheny Main Library in the University of Southern California (USC)

description: A view of a water fountain in front of the Doheny Main Library in the University of Southern California (USC).; Streetscape. Horizontal photography.
DOI: 10.25549/whit-m2597
title: The University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) campus in Westwood

description: The University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) campus in Westwood.; Streetscape. Horizontal photography.
DOI: 10.25549/whit-m2708
title: Water lilies and palm trees in Echo Park

description: Water lilies and palm trees in Echo Park.; Streetscape. Horizontal photography.
DOI: 10.25549/whit-m2587
title: Looking west over the palms and banana trees of Pershing Square to the Biltmore Hotel, which opened in 1923

description: Looking west over the palms and banana trees of Pershing Square to the Biltmore Hotel, which opened in 1923.; Streetscape. Horizontal photography.
DOI: 10.25549/whit-m2728
title: Looking northwest along Spring Street from the corner of Seventh Street as pedestrians crowd the crosswalks and sidewalks

description: Looking northwest along Spring Street from the corner of Seventh Street as pedestrians crowd the crosswalks and sidewalks.; Streetscape. Horizontal photography.
DOI: 10.25549/whit-m2701
title: An aerial view of the Rose Bowl

description: An aerial view of the Rose Bowl.; Streetscape. Oblique aerial photography.
DOI: 10.25549/whit-m2596
title: Looking across Hollywood Boulevard to the Roosevelt Hotel

description: Looking across Hollywood Boulevard to the Roosevelt Hotel.; Streetscape. Horizontal photography.
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c3-5751
title: Crime and punishment: examining proportionality issues within criminal law

description: As a strong contributor to the conversation about proportionality within the criminal justice system, Adam Kolber makes a compelling argument in his paper, The Comparative Nature of Punishment, to dismiss the common belief that the same prison sentence punishes offenders of the same crime by equal severities. He suggests that an offender with a high baseline, a level to designate one’s quality of life, would be punished more severely if he were brought down to the same prison conditions as someone who started with a lower baseline. Baselines must be considered in order to ensure we are harming offenders proportionately. As Kolber concedes, however, odd results will follow when applying this theory in practice. If a millionaire and a homeless person committed the same crime, we would have to punish the millionaire by moving him from his penthouse loft and imprisoning him in a small condo on the sixth floor while punishing the homeless person by moving him from the street’s back alley and imprisoning him in a roach-infested cell in a basement. Punishers should not be forced to abide by these strange guidelines in order to reach proportionality as Kolber’s argument suggests. In this paper, I present three opposing views to Kolber’s argument: 1) Punishing offenders by only regarding their baseline does not account for other factors involved within the calculation of criminal punishment, 2) the additional harm suffered by higher baseline offenders is justified within the current punishment model, and 3) this additional harm may not even be present within current practices. A critical discussion of proportionality issues in criminal punishment follows.
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c3-6676
title: A subgrid-scale model for large-eddy simulation based on the physics of interscale energy transfer in turbulence

description: In large-eddy simulation (LES) various subgrid-scale models have been proposed, all of which attempt to account for the unknown effects of the unresolved scales of turbulence on the resolved flow-field. The scale-similarity model is one such model, which is formulated using a secondary filter applied to components of the resolved velocity and its products. The scale-similarity model is based on the assumption that the velocities associated with neighboring scales in the flow produce turbulent stresses that are similar in character. The model uses an expression that weights the scales just below the LES cutoff in its approximation of the stresses of the unresolved scales. It is well-known, however, that the similarity model fails to accurately predict some of the most fundamental quantities in turbulent flows, perhaps the most important being the global energy transfer and the associated subgrid-scale dissipation. In previous research, additional dissipative terms have been added to the similarity model to improve the model's performance. ❧ In the present research, considerations of interscale energy transfer have been used to identify the deficiencies of the energy transfer role of the similarity model, specifically its inadequate removal of terms contributing energy to the smallest scales and its duplication of terms producing effects in the largest scales. These considerations are then used in the development of a new model, which shows more favorable characteristics of energy transfer. In this approach, partial nonlinear terms are used to decompose the nonlinear transfer present in LES and to formulate an expression capable of removing small-scale production terms depositing energy near the LES cutoff. The proposed model is formulated in the same vein as the scale-similarity model, consisting of test-filtered velocities and their products, but the new interscale transfer model offers improvements in its predictions of mean flow quantities and the global energy flux from the resolved to subgrid scales. The current research demonstrates that by implementing this model in a posteriori LES testing of wall-bounded flows, improved LES predictions are possible without the need for additional terms to augment subgrid-scale energy dissipation.
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c3-4698
title: The impact of the Norton High School early college program on the academic performance of students at Norton High School

description: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of the Norton High School Early College Early College Program on academic measures for students at Norton High School. Measures of achievement include the results of the English Language Arts (ELA), Mathematics, Social Science, and Science portions of the California Standards Test (CST), Student Opportunity to Learn (OTL), high school attendance rates, high school grade-point averages, and college matriculation. ❧ A retrospective quasi-experimental design was used to analyze the difference in CST scores (English Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, and Social Science); OTL, attendance rates, grade-point averages, and college matriculation rates between the retrospective control group (pre-intervention) and the intervention group (post-intervention). ❧ The results of this study indicate that the Norton High School Early College (NHSEC) program has a positive affect on most student achievement measures. The NHSEC positively impacts both success and proficiency on CST tests. CST success improved in ELA, AP/ADV Math, and Chemistry. CST proficiency improved in ELA, US History, AP/ADV Math, Biology, and Chemistry. ❧ The NHSEC program also positively impacts Opportunity To Learn (OTL). Students in the intervention group were more likely to enroll and persist in higher-level mathematics and science courses. A positive impact also was seen in attendance rates. Students in the intervention group had a higher mean attendance rate than the retrospective control group. ❧ The quantitative data in this study did not reveal higher grades and increased college matriculation for Norton High School students. However, several external factors may have affected these variables. ❧ The results of the NHSEC program effects on student achievement measures were promising. The positive outcomes on CST scores and OTL were consistent with the goals of NCLB and could assist Norton High School in meeting both AYP and API. According to the results of this study, the early college concept impacts Norton High School’s student achievement measures positively.
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c3-6176
title: Leadership traits and practices supporting position longevity for urban school superintendents: a case study

description: The purpose of this study was to add to the research on position longevity for urban school superintendents by examining personal character traits and skills.  The study   explores how these traits translate to leadership behaviors.  Additionally, relevant background and experience necessary to success were examined.  This was a case study involving one superintendent and the school district he manages. The work of Bolman and Deal (2003) provides the conceptual framework by viewing leadership behaviors through structural, human resources, political and symbolic frames. This study utilized a quantitative research design through the use of surveys to all Board of Education members, the superintendent’s cabinet and all union officers. Qualitatively, the research design involved interviews with the Superintendent, a Board member, a cabinet member and a union officer. Another superintendent was interviewed to add interest to this study and to add validity to the findings. Information was garnered from interviews, but too few surveys were completed to make the quantitative results significant. Findings in this study examine those traits and skills necessary for the successful superintendent, as identified by superintendents themselves and those around them and serves as recommendations for post-graduate study programs or for those wishing to hone their skills.
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c3-4598
title: Corporate social media: trends in the use of emerging social media in corporate America

description: As social media not only becomes a vital asset in the corporate space in the United States, but an extension of most internal and external functions of an organization, this paper’s goal will be to understand the emerging trends and best practices of social media as they relate to corporate uses. Has social media in fact changed the landscape of corporate America into an integrated extension of consumer and employee behavior, trend monitoring and business development? It is undeniable that social and digital media has played a vital part in bringing consumers closer to the brands they follow, and vice versa, but to what extent are these opportunities being taken advantage of by brands, and to what level of sustained innovation?
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c3-5470
title: Restructuring Hong Kong higher education: a case study of Lingnan University and its preparation for the new four-year track in 2012

description: In its quest for boosting Hong Kong’s world-class standing in higher education, the Hong Kong Education and Manpower Bureau implemented the 3+3+4 reform, which represents a major overhaul of higher education curriculum; the addition of one year of studies to create a four-year undergraduate degree track is set to replace its three-year track in the 2012-2013 academic year. Also included in this mandatory reform is the “Core Curriculum,” which each publicly funded university in Hong Kong created in order to provide a more multi-disciplinary approach to preparing their graduates for the global workforce. Ten interviews with Lingnan University leaders were conducted for this qualitative study, and theoretical frameworks by Bolman and Deal (2003) and Skolnik (2009) provided the lenses through which the findings were analyzed. This study presents the changes to the Lingnan University curriculum, how Lingnan University planned for the new four-year system through the changes, the priorities and values to which the university adhered as it implemented change, and some of the challenges that its leaders will face once the 3+3+4 reform goes into effect.
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c3-5067
title: The interpersonal effect of emotion in decision-making and social dilemmas

description: Recent decades have seen increased interest on the role of emotional expression in human-computer interaction. However, despite a growing number of empirical findings reported in the literature, the results are still inconclusive about the mechanism for the social effects of emotion. This dissertation studies how emotion displays in computers impact people's decision-making and proposes a mechanism for such effects based on appraisal theories of emotion. In appraisal theories, emotion displays arise from cognitive appraisal of events with respect to one's goals (e.g., is this event congruent with my goals? Who is responsible for this event?). According to the pattern of appraisals that occurs, different emotions are experienced and displayed. Since displays reflect the agent's intentions through the appraisal process, we argue people infer, from emotion displays, how computer agents are appraising the ongoing interaction and, from this information, make inferences about the agents' intentions. We refer to this theory as reverse appraisal. To support it, several empirical studies are presented where participants engage in the iterated prisoner's dilemma with virtual agents that, though following the same strategy to choose their actions, display emotions in the face that are consistent with either cooperative or competitive goals. The results confirm that emotion displays impact people's decision making and people cooperate more with cooperative agents. Consistent with reverse appraisal's prediction that what is critical for the effects is not the emotion but the underlying appraisals, the results also show that the same display (e.g., a smile) can lead to opposite effects on cooperation depending on the context in which it is shown. A final study shows that people can successfully retrieve, from emotion displays, information about how agents are appraising the ongoing interaction; moreover, these perceptions of appraisal are shown to mediate the effect of emotion displays on perceptions of the agents' likelihood of cooperation. Having established the theoretical foundations of reverse appraisal, the dissertation presents several computational models of decision-making in the prisoner's dilemma. These models were developed by applying statistical and machine learning techniques on the data collected in the studies. Experimental results show that, as expected, computer models can better replicate human behavior in the original studies if they take into consideration the counterpart's appraisals and emotion displays. In addition, the dissertation also contributes a platform for creating realistic embodied agents that can display emotion. This platform was used in all studies to implement the experimental manipulations and can be used as a research tool to study human-agent and human-human interaction. Finally, the dissertation discusses the implications of reverse appraisal and the reported social effects of emotion for human-computer interaction, artificial intelligence, decision and emotion theory.
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c3-7495
title: Students with disabilities experience in higher education online courses: an exploratory study of self-efficacy, use of assistive technologies and mobile media

description: The overarching aim of this mixed methods study was to explore the online experiences of students with disabilities, with particular focus on students’ use of assistive technologies, mobile media and self-efficacy. Using a multifaceted an integrative approach, this study considered a framework of universal design, Scherer’s Matching Person and Technology model and theories such as social cognitive theory to help strengthen the study by using theory triangulation (Denzin, 1978; Patton, 2002). ❧ The study site was a large Community College in Southern California. Students who met the criteria for the study, voluntarily chose to participate in either the quantitative survey portion of the study (n=42) or the qualitative semi-structured interview (n=9) or both (n=9). The findings suggest that students’ awareness of accommodations, their use of assistive technologies, use of mobile media, instructor feedback, instructor engagement with students and organization of the instructor were key factors in their learning and experience in an online academic environment. The results from the quantitative analysis indicated that students’ perceptions of support offered in face to face versus online courses made no statistical difference; participants reported having high self-efficacy in their own beliefs and expectations to successfully complete the course; and they were most often able to meet their own grade and learning expectations in the online course. ❧ The implications of this study indicate the need for instructor engagement and feedback, the need for professional development to online instructors, and educational institutions, and perhaps an online tutorial and discussion forum for students to engage with instructors in online courses. The study also supports the notion that when curriculum is not designed through the lens of Universal design, where access to accommodations and resources are embedded in the course itself, it can lead to students with disabilities feeling unsupported by their educational institutions and overwhelmed in their academic course work, decreasing motivation and performance.
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c3-5934
title: Cognitive task analysis for instruction in single-injection ultrasound-guided regional anesthesia

description: Cognitive task analysis (CTA) is methodology for eliciting knowledge from subject matter experts.  CTA has been used to capture the cognitive processes, decision-making, and judgments that underlie expert behaviors.  A review of the literature revealed that CTA has not yet been used to capture the knowledge required to perform ultrasound guided regional anesthesia (UGRA).  The purpose of this study was to utilize CTA to extract knowledge from UGRA experts and to determine whether instruction based on CTA of UGRA will produce results superior to the results of traditional training. This study adds to the knowledge base of CTA in being the first one to effectively capture the expert knowledge of UGRA.  The derived protocol was used in a randomized, double blinded experiment involving UGRA instruction to 39 novice learners. The results of this study strongly support the hypothesis that CTA-based instruction in UGRA is more effective than conventional clinical instruction, as measured by conceptual pre- and post-tests, performance of a simulated UGRA procedure, and time necessary for the task performance. This study adds to the number of studies that have proven the superiority of CTA-informed instruction. Finally, it produced several validated instruments that can be used in instructing and evaluating UGRA.
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c3-5262
title: Early childhood health experience & adult phenotype in twins

description: Childhood health experience may have a long term effects lasting into adulthood. Childhood infections have an etiologic role in the development of cancers and chronic diseases. For example, Epstein Barr virus (EBV) and Helicobactor pylori are well established causes of EBV-positive Hodgkin’s lymphoma and stomach cancer, respectively. Height has also been commonly associated with many cancers and other chronic conditions. It is usually interpreted as a proxy for childhood socioeconomic status or nutrition. However the effect of height on diseases has been consistently reported independent of the effects of childhood socioeconomic status and diet, suggesting height may represent other underlying biological mechanisms. Studies examining childhood experiences are challenging due to unreliable recall by study participants and the unavailability and incomplete of medical records. ❧ Twins offer unique advantages for studying childhood health experience because they can provide relative differences in exposure, they can validate each other’s answers, and they are either partially or entirely matched on genome. This dissertation consists of several projects examining childhood health in which twins identified from the California Twin Program were the participants. For two of the studies, both young adult twins and their mothers were interviewed, providing consistent and reliable information pertaining to the twins’ childhood illness history. In a descriptive study, comparing responses from mothers and twins about childhood exposures, I found all subjects were able to provide the most information on differences between the twins when questions were framed in a comparative fashion with ordinal answers. Although the number of pairs reporting differences in exposures was small, their answers were generally consistent with their mothers. ❧ Infectious mononucleosis, a disease caused by a delayed infection of EBV, is associated with EBV positive Hodgkin’s lymphoma and multiple sclerosis. I conducted a heritability study in monozygotic and dizygotic twins and found evidence suggesting a genetic component in the development of infectious mononucleosis. ❧ The effect of childhood illnesses on adult height was assessed in healthy identical twins differing in height as adults, to control for genetic factors, childhood socioeconomic status and parental exposures. The twin who reported more frequent episodes of febrile illnesses was twice as likely to become the shorter twin as an adult. This effect was consistent after adjusting for birth weight and birth height and was strongest and most significant during toddler years (1-5 years of age). ❧ In conclusion, these studies suggest that childhood illnesses are a determinant of adult height. In the future, these findings can be applied to elucidate the relationship between childhood infections and adult diseases.
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c3-7679
title: Senses of history: colonial memories, works of art, and heterogeneous community in America's Asia-Pacific since 1945

description: This dissertation attempts to locate a nexus of aesthetic theory, historical memory, and emergent ""community"" that is inherently heterogeneous and does not revolve around an exemplary subject.  It does so through a reading of canonical and non-canonical post-World War II American, Asian American, and some Japanese-language literary and cinematic texts.  The authors and filmmakers analyzed include Charles Olson, Kiyota Masanobu, Allen Ginsberg, Trinh T. Minh-Ha, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Myung Mi Kim, and Kim Shijong.  It examines and proposes a type of ghostly materialism whereby the barely sensible aspect of historical memory solicits at once the becoming of its witnesses and transformative differentiation of the very memories themselves.