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Title: Democratization and exogenous cultural influence: Western mass media and democratic consolidation in Eastern Europe.
Creator: Batey, John R., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of Political Science
Abstract/Description: Democratic forms of government are either consolidating democratic institutions or unraveling into authoritarianism in the former Soviet Union. Among the possible causes of each success or failure to consolidate democracy is the character of civil society and its cultural proximity to long-standing, modern state-based, consolidated democracies of the West. What impact does Western or Westernized media have upon the indigenous civil societies of Eastern Europe, and is this impact sufficient to...
Show moreDemocratic forms of government are either consolidating democratic institutions or unraveling into authoritarianism in the former Soviet Union. Among the possible causes of each success or failure to consolidate democracy is the character of civil society and its cultural proximity to long-standing, modern state-based, consolidated democracies of the West. What impact does Western or Westernized media have upon the indigenous civil societies of Eastern Europe, and is this impact sufficient to consolidate democracy among the states of the former Soviet Union? As case studies, Eastern Europe contains two states, Estonia and Russia, where democracy has either succeeded or failed alongside the presence of exogenous cultural influence in the form of Western or Westernized television broadcast media. To what extent does the presence of Western broadcast media and associated cultural memes predict the iv consolidation of democratic political values, and how ought any impact of these memes be interpreted in the light of modernity, Eurocentricity and cultural hegemony? To account for the impact of exogenous cultural influence, foreign policy prescriptions that encourage the growth of indigenous, mimetic, democratic civic culture would appear to be an effective means of supporting democracy in the emerging democracies of Eastern Europe.
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Date Issued: 2013
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/3360741
Subject Headings: Post-communism, Post-communism, Social aspects, Democratization, Mass media policy, Mass media, Political aspects, Politics and government
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: Global warming in the microblog era: a rhetorical analysis of Twitter dialogue between ExxonMobil and Greenpeace USA.
Creator: Kattoura, Mark A., School of Communication and Multimedia Studies
Abstract/Description: This qualitative study examines whether microblogging illustrates or contradicts the longstanding notion that the Internet allows for greater public participation in important issues, thus potentially expanding public sphere. The study analyzes 5 years of tweets about climate change between ExxonMobil and Greenpeace USA using a new hybrid, or blended methodology that combines Kenneth Burke's rhetorical analysis of cluster-agons with eight physical attributes of the Internet that Marshall Poe...
Show moreThis qualitative study examines whether microblogging illustrates or contradicts the longstanding notion that the Internet allows for greater public participation in important issues, thus potentially expanding public sphere. The study analyzes 5 years of tweets about climate change between ExxonMobil and Greenpeace USA using a new hybrid, or blended methodology that combines Kenneth Burke's rhetorical analysis of cluster-agons with eight physical attributes of the Internet that Marshall Poe identified as influential in pushing societies and ideas in new directions. Clusters are also examined using Grace Poh Lyn's reflexive analysis. Additionally, the analysis also considers the use of agitative and control strategies, discursive tensions between freedom and domination, and the rhetorical use of public vernaculars. Analysis of the tweets reveals that business organizations that at first glance or in theory seem to be at odds actually share common discursive practices. They communicate about the same issues at the same or similar times using the same language for the same primary purpose-survival of the organization-while giving the impression that they are working for the good of their respective publics for environmental causes or the bottom line, or even both. The researcher concludes that although there are specific cases of microblogging in which the public benefits to some extent, those gains are either very short-lived or are more likely to exist in theory rather than practice due to the fluid nature of microblogging as well as continued organizational missteps which I call "corporate ejacking."
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Date Issued: 2013
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/3360800
Subject Headings: Influence, Global warming, Mass media and culture, Social responsibility of business
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: A review of corporate-based wellness programs for general health promotion and prevention of type II diabetes mellitus.
Creator: Hemmings, Jodian R., Blanks, Robert H., Florida Atlantic University, Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine, Department of Biomedical Science
Abstract/Description: This research focuses on obesity and other major risk factors for chronic diseases such as Type II Diabetes Mellitus, Heart Disease, and Stroke. Worksite wellness programs have been successful in this realm of health promotion and disease prevention for heart disease and stroke, but their effectiveness in treating diabetes has been uncertain partially due to poor patient compliance, lack of stress reduction strategies, poor diet and lack of persuasive health education on the risk of being...
Show moreThis research focuses on obesity and other major risk factors for chronic diseases such as Type II Diabetes Mellitus, Heart Disease, and Stroke. Worksite wellness programs have been successful in this realm of health promotion and disease prevention for heart disease and stroke, but their effectiveness in treating diabetes has been uncertain partially due to poor patient compliance, lack of stress reduction strategies, poor diet and lack of persuasive health education on the risk of being obese. Published peer-reviewed articles were reviewed, coded and analyzed to determine best practices, using a modified systematic review approach. The findings from these studies yield results that were used to develop a new employer-sponsored wellness program that is in accordance with the recently passed Affordable Care Act.
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Date Issued: 2014
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00004201, http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00004201
Subject Headings: Behavior modification, Employee assistance programs, Health promotion, Medicine, Preventive, Non insulin dependent diabetes -- Prevention, obesity -- Risk factors, Preventive health services, Psychology, Industrial, Social responsibility of business, United States -- Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: "A spirit of benevolence": Manchester and the origins of modern public health, 1790-1834.
Creator: Boxen, Jennifer L., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of History
Abstract/Description: This thesis argues that the British Public Health movement did not begin in 1842 with Edwin Chadwick's publication, Report on the Sanitary Conditions of the Labouring Population of Great Britain (1842), or in 1848, with the subsequent passage of the Public Health Act. The beginning of the public health movement was instead the product of local initiatives such as the Manchester Board of Health, administered not by central government, but by members of the local community supported by...
Show moreThis thesis argues that the British Public Health movement did not begin in 1842 with Edwin Chadwick's publication, Report on the Sanitary Conditions of the Labouring Population of Great Britain (1842), or in 1848, with the subsequent passage of the Public Health Act. The beginning of the public health movement was instead the product of local initiatives such as the Manchester Board of Health, administered not by central government, but by members of the local community supported by predominantly philanthropic funding. The Manchester movement predated Chadwick's efforts by at least half a century and bore a greater resemblance to the modern idea of an organized public health system than that advanced by Chadwick and his contemporaries. This is because the Manchester movement emphasized not only those sanitary ideas ascribed to Chadwick but also included a broader spectrum of public health measures, including but not limited to ; preventative medicine, occupational health, and the reduction of contagious diseases.
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Date Issued: 2013
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/3360766
Subject Headings: Public health, History, History, Social conditions
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: Adult learning for healthy aging: an investigation of health literacy and technology use in older adults.
Creator: Swann, Elizabeth G., Bryan, Valerie, Florida Atlantic University, College of Education, Department of Educational Leadership and Research Methodology
Abstract/Description: This study explored the healthy aging process by: (a) examining the selected demographics of older adults in South Florida; (b) examining technology use of older adults in South Florida; (c) examining the health literacy levels of older adults in South Florida; (d) determining whether a relationship exists between older adults living in South Florida use of technology and their health literacy levels; and (e) evaluating the effects of health literacy as it relates to technology use in older...
Show moreThis study explored the healthy aging process by: (a) examining the selected demographics of older adults in South Florida; (b) examining technology use of older adults in South Florida; (c) examining the health literacy levels of older adults in South Florida; (d) determining whether a relationship exists between older adults living in South Florida use of technology and their health literacy levels; and (e) evaluating the effects of health literacy as it relates to technology use in older adults in South Florida. Variables explored included health literacy, education, ethnicity, and technology use. The sample study included 102 older adults (age > 60) living in South Florida that had completed profiles on the South Florida Quality Aging Registry, a part of the Healthy Aging Research Initiative (HARI). The sample size represented 22.3% of the total South Florida Quality Aging Registry population. The ethnicities of the participants among the South Florida Quality Aging Registry were African American (17%); Afro Caribbean (7.8%); Hispanic (10.7%); and European American (63.7%). The education mean was 15, indicating that the majority of participants had an education level equivalent to completing high school. The mean health literacy score was 3.88, demonstrating that the majority of the participants had moderate levels of health literacy. The mean technology use score was 7.5 on a scale of one through ten, indicating that the majority of the participants had a moderate level of technology use. Analysis of variance, correlation coefficients, and multiple regression analysis was used to explore the variables that may influence health literacy. There was a statistically significant difference among Afro Caribbean and African American, Afro Caribbean and European American, European American and Hispanic ethnicities related to their health literacy skill level (p < .01). Additionally, there was a statistically significant difference among Afro Caribbean American and European American ethnicities and technology use (p. < .01).
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Date Issued: 2014
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00004165, http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00004165
Subject Headings: Aging -- Psychological aspects, Aging -- Social aspects, Cognition in old age, Computers and older people, Health behavior, Internet and older people, Older people -- Health and hygiene, Technology and older people
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: That's SO last century: fashion and modiality in Melville's Typee.
Creator: DeBerry, Tealia., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: A literary text is a means for critics to analyze societal influence on the author, and both fashion and body modification serve this same function because they are legible texts with which to interpret the psychological motivations of the wearer in the cultural context in which he or she lives. Fashion theorists such as Roland Barthes and J.C. Flugel have detailed the reasons that they believe dress evolves throughout time, and the following thesis applies their theories to Melville's first...
Show moreA literary text is a means for critics to analyze societal influence on the author, and both fashion and body modification serve this same function because they are legible texts with which to interpret the psychological motivations of the wearer in the cultural context in which he or she lives. Fashion theorists such as Roland Barthes and J.C. Flugel have detailed the reasons that they believe dress evolves throughout time, and the following thesis applies their theories to Melville's first novel Typee. In the first chapter, entitled, "Moral Fibers: Dress as the Extension of Self," much emphasis is given to archetypes of dress such as the veil, the corset and military uniforms in the Orient and the Occident. The second chapter, "Cut From the Same Cloth: Body Modification as Semiotic Modality," discusses ritualistic tattooing as a mode of literary expression.
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Date Issued: 2009
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/215287
Subject Headings: Clothing and dress, Psychology, Fashion, Social aspects, Self-perception in literature, Fashion in literature
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: The discourse of the divine: radical traditions of black feminism, musicking, and myth within the black public sphere (civil rights to the present).
Creator: Carter, Issac Martel, White, Derrick, Florida Atlantic University, Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of History
Abstract/Description: The Discourse of the Divine: Radical Traditions of Black Feminism, Musicking,and Myth within the Black Public Sphere (Civil Rights to the Present) is an exploration of the historical precursors and the contemporary developments of Black feminism in America, via Black female musical production and West and Central African cosmology. Historical continuity and consciousness of African spirituality within the development of Black feminism are analyzed alongside the musical practices of two Black...
Show moreThe Discourse of the Divine: Radical Traditions of Black Feminism, Musicking,and Myth within the Black Public Sphere (Civil Rights to the Present) is an exploration of the historical precursors and the contemporary developments of Black feminism in America, via Black female musical production and West and Central African cosmology. Historical continuity and consciousness of African spirituality within the development of Black feminism are analyzed alongside the musical practices of two Black female musicians, Nina Simone and Me’shell Ndegéocello. Simone and Ndegéocello, The High Priestess of Soul and the Mother of Neo-Soul, respectively, distend the commodified confines of Black music and identity by challenging the established norms of music and knowledge production. These artists’ lyrics, politics, and representations substantiate the “Signifyin(g)” elements of West and Central African feminist mythologies and music- making traditions.
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Date Issued: 2015
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00004434, http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00004434
Subject Headings: African American women -- Social conditions, African American women -- Spirituality, African American women in popular culture, Feminist theory, NdegéOcello, Me'Shell -- 1969- -- Music -- Influence, Simone, Nina -- 1933-2003 -- Music -- Influence, Womanist theology
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: The perpetual motion machine.
Creator: Ackerman, Brittany, McKay, Becka, Florida Atlantic University, Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: The Perpetual Motion Machine is a collection of creative nonfiction essays about the author and her brother as they have experienced growing up both together and then apart throughout the years of their lives. The essays deal with the pair’s childhood, adolescence and adulthood as well as the issues of depression, anxiety and drug addiction. Some pieces are flash-style and others are longer works of lyric essay or general narrative. The pieces can both stand alone and work to create a larger,...
Show moreThe Perpetual Motion Machine is a collection of creative nonfiction essays about the author and her brother as they have experienced growing up both together and then apart throughout the years of their lives. The essays deal with the pair’s childhood, adolescence and adulthood as well as the issues of depression, anxiety and drug addiction. Some pieces are flash-style and others are longer works of lyric essay or general narrative. The pieces can both stand alone and work to create a larger, substantial narrative on how drug addiction affects an entire family, one’s whole world, thus telling a story about how the author must find herself through investigating her brother’s trials and tribulations with addiction.
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Date Issued: 2015
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00004340
Subject Headings: Addicts--Family relationships, Brothers and sisters--Family relationships, Brothers and sisters--Psychological aspects., Dysfunctional families--Psychological aspects, Substance abuse--Psychological aspects, Compulsive behavior--Social aspects
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: An aristocratic revolution?: the British reaction to the Decembrist Revolt of 1825.
Creator: Posner, Kenneth., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of History
Abstract/Description: This thesis argues that in the wake of the Decembrist Revolt in Russia in 1825, the British Foreign Office was forced to address the tension between two conceptions of stability-one domestic and one international. It contends that the aristocratic ethos of the British diplomatic corps both magnified the fragile social condition of the Russian Empire and organized the political response which subordinated this concern to the international equilibrium of Europe. Ambassadors such as Lord...
Show moreThis thesis argues that in the wake of the Decembrist Revolt in Russia in 1825, the British Foreign Office was forced to address the tension between two conceptions of stability-one domestic and one international. It contends that the aristocratic ethos of the British diplomatic corps both magnified the fragile social condition of the Russian Empire and organized the political response which subordinated this concern to the international equilibrium of Europe. Ambassadors such as Lord Strangford and Edward Cromwell Disbrowe helped interpret the events of the Decembrist conspiracy while stationed in St. Petersburg and reported back to their Foreign Secretary, George Canning, who used the revolt as an attempt to realign British interests with Russia. In the end, elite Britons chose to protect the international balance of power in post-Napoleonic Europe instead of the traditional social hierarchies believed to be under siege in Russia.
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Date Issued: 2010
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/2705079
Subject Headings: Secret societies, Decembrists, Aristocracy (Social class), History, History, Influence, Politics and government, Politics and government
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: " You're too late!": prenatal health seeking behaviors of Guatemalan Mayan women in Palm Beach County.
Creator: Supanich, Colleen., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of Anthropology
Abstract/Description: In this thesis I explore the circumstances in which pregnant Guatemalan Mayan women in South Florida communities found themselves. A local non-profit organization, the Guatemalan Maya Center (GMC), offered assistance to pregnant Mayan women to secure biomedical prenatal care, yet many continued to underutilize these services. The decision to utilize this form of care largely depended on whether a woman received care from a traditional midwife in the community. Women receiving care from a...
Show moreIn this thesis I explore the circumstances in which pregnant Guatemalan Mayan women in South Florida communities found themselves. A local non-profit organization, the Guatemalan Maya Center (GMC), offered assistance to pregnant Mayan women to secure biomedical prenatal care, yet many continued to underutilize these services. The decision to utilize this form of care largely depended on whether a woman received care from a traditional midwife in the community. Women receiving care from a midwife generally did not seek biomedical care until late in their pregnancies. Women unable to locate a midwife often incorporated biomedical care once they suspected pregnancy. Due to the difficulties accessing the GMC's services prior to enrollment many of these women did not obtain "timely" care. A better understanding of the ways in which Guatemalan Mayan women incorporated biomedical prenatal care into their lives is the first step towards increasing their participation in these services.
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Date Issued: 2009
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/192990
Subject Headings: Maya women, Medical care, Prenatal care, Maternal health services, Midwifery, Social aspects, Migrant agricultural laborers, Medical care
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: What is old is new again: the role of discontinuity in nostalgia-related consumption.
Creator: Rutherford, Jana., College of Business, Department of Marketing
Abstract/Description: A 'wave of nostalgia' has gripped the US leading to nostalgic fashions, furniture, television programming and even food. The marketing literature suggests that nostalgic-related consumption is the result of an aging population. It has been proposed that the purchase of nostalgic-products and services is an attempt by mature consumers to return psychologically to the ease, certainties and conflict free periods that existed or seemed to exist during their childhood or adolescence. This paper...
Show moreA 'wave of nostalgia' has gripped the US leading to nostalgic fashions, furniture, television programming and even food. The marketing literature suggests that nostalgic-related consumption is the result of an aging population. It has been proposed that the purchase of nostalgic-products and services is an attempt by mature consumers to return psychologically to the ease, certainties and conflict free periods that existed or seemed to exist during their childhood or adolescence. This paper proposes that discontinuity, as argued by Davis (1979), is a better explanation for why people develop a preference for and consume nostalgic goods. Although some insights have been developed, research focused only on mature consumers and is rather limited in offering alternative explanations for the evocation of nostalgic feelings. MANCOVA was the primary method used to test hypotheses. Findings of this study indicate that discontinuity does not necessarily lead to nostalgia and preference for nostalgic products varies.
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Date Issued: 2010
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/2683126
Subject Headings: Consumption (Economics), Social aspects, Consumer behavior, Commercial products, Psychological aspects, Nostalgia, Economic aspects, Material culture, Popular culture
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: Voices of survival: opera in Theresienstadt.
Creator: Marcus, Jackelyn., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of Music
Date Issued: 2012
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/3342197
Subject Headings: Jews, Music, History and criticism, National socialism and music, Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: The reality of fiction: diagnosing white culture through the lens of mother/nature in Zora Neale Hurston's Seraph on the Suwanee.
Creator: Butler, Rita C., Florida Atlantic University, Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: Zora Neale Hurston's last published novel, Seraph on the Suwanee, can be read as a sociopolitical critique of what she once referred to as the false foundation of Anglo-Saxon civilization. An overview of the history of race as a concept and the development of racial awareness in the United States provides a background/context for understanding the world Hurston was diagnosing: her analysis implies that the social construction of whiteness contains within its ideology the seeds of its own...
Show moreZora Neale Hurston's last published novel, Seraph on the Suwanee, can be read as a sociopolitical critique of what she once referred to as the false foundation of Anglo-Saxon civilization. An overview of the history of race as a concept and the development of racial awareness in the United States provides a background/context for understanding the world Hurston was diagnosing: her analysis implies that the social construction of whiteness contains within its ideology the seeds of its own destruction. Feminist notions of origin, context, and foundation highlight the narcissistic nature of patriarchal social systems that exploit not only the female body but nature as well. In a society that supposedly honors the maternal and praises the beauty of nature, Hurston's novel suggests that both motherhood and nature are exploited by a patriarchal culture focused on competition and material gain. In addition, by highlighting the narcissism of her male protagonist, who presumably represents a socially admired standard of normalcy, she undermines the narrative of superiority that privileges a white patriarchy.
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Date Issued: 2008
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/108065
Subject Headings: Political and social views, Race awareness in literature
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: A philosophical analysis of America's transformation to universal health care: implications for responsibility and justice.
Creator: Mantoni, Jennifer Lynn., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of Philosophy
Abstract/Description: Human beings have two apparently conflicting fundamental rights. On the one hand, individuals have a right to health care as the United Nations declared in 1948. On the other hand, individuals have a right to liberty; that is, the freedom to make one's own health related choices, even poor ones. One goal of this essay is to show how to reconcile these two apparently conflicting core American values. This reconciliation is important, because a universal health care system that is fair and just...
Show moreHuman beings have two apparently conflicting fundamental rights. On the one hand, individuals have a right to health care as the United Nations declared in 1948. On the other hand, individuals have a right to liberty; that is, the freedom to make one's own health related choices, even poor ones. One goal of this essay is to show how to reconcile these two apparently conflicting core American values. This reconciliation is important, because a universal health care system that is fair and just must account for individual rights in tandem with attempts to address matters of social justice. In order for this reconciliation to occur, matters of individual responsibility, social responsibility, and social justice must be central to health care reform.
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Date Issued: 2011
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/3171680
Subject Headings: Health care reform, Health services accessibility, Insurance, Health, Government policy, Political science, Philosophy, Health care rationing, Moral and ethical aspects, Social justice, Responsibility
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: Using the visual to "see" absence: the case of Thessaloniki.
Creator: Stein, Nancy Carol., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of Anthropology
Abstract/Description: Thessaloniki, a city with an Ottoman, Byzantine, and Sephardic past, is located in the Balkan area of Macedonia, in northern Greece. Its history is the story of people who have come from someplace else. For several hundred years, the majority population of the city was comprised of Spanish speaking Sephardic Jews who contributed to all aspects of the development of the city. This significant presence is no longer visible unless one specifically knows where to look for its traces. It is not a...
Show moreThessaloniki, a city with an Ottoman, Byzantine, and Sephardic past, is located in the Balkan area of Macedonia, in northern Greece. Its history is the story of people who have come from someplace else. For several hundred years, the majority population of the city was comprised of Spanish speaking Sephardic Jews who contributed to all aspects of the development of the city. This significant presence is no longer visible unless one specifically knows where to look for its traces. It is not a history that has been silenced or erased, but rather obliterated. In this dissertation, I present the documented presence and transformations of the Jewish population in Thessaloniki from the earliest contributions to present day. This work on absence uses visual anthropology to explore the present day urban environment through an ethnographic account of the city of Thessaloniki. . This is a work about what happens when intentionally omitted histories remain absent from the public sphere. What remains physically present but unrepresented proves equally important in creating and reinforcing memory. Our relationship to our environment also may be compromised by what is absent. This project examines absence through the circumstances by which the past is represented in the present, and looks at how the past is experienced in ways that may be used to invoke, challenge, or re-direct the way a community is remembered.
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Date Issued: 2013
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/3361054
Subject Headings: Jews, History, Sephardim, History, Ethnic relations, Social life and customs, History, Ethnic relations, History
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: Toxic Island et L’Empreinte à Crusoé : l’individuation de l’identité franco-antillaise.
Creator: Jurawan, Kimberley, Gosser Esquilin, Mary Ann, Florida Atlantic University, Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of Languages, Linguistics and Comparative Literature
Abstract/Description: Within the Caribbean, the islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique are unusual: they are French overseas departments and thus also European Union members. As such, they must assimilate to French national culture even though their heterogeneous populations, mainly descendants of exploited imported labour, have their own unique island identity. Their heavy economic dependence on France and the effects of modernization and globalization pose further identitarian challenges for them. Franco-Antillean...
Show moreWithin the Caribbean, the islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique are unusual: they are French overseas departments and thus also European Union members. As such, they must assimilate to French national culture even though their heterogeneous populations, mainly descendants of exploited imported labour, have their own unique island identity. Their heavy economic dependence on France and the effects of modernization and globalization pose further identitarian challenges for them. Franco-Antillean literature clearly reflects this long-standing identity confusion. This thesis explores two very recent novels— Toxic Island by Guadeloupean Ernest Pépin and L’Empreinte à Crusoé by Martinican Patrick Chamoiseau— and their divergent stylistic treatments of individuation. Both are inspired by Édouard Glissant’s theories of Relation and Tout- Monde; both engage questions of language, orality, the island space, race, the subject of alterity and the role of the arts and artists in identity formation. Yet both are also marked by distinctly unique forms of ambivalence.
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Date Issued: 2015
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00004447, http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00004447
Subject Headings: Caribbean literature (French) -- Criticism and interpretation, Chamoiseau, Patrick -- L'Empreinte à Crusoé -- Criticism and interpretation, Group identity, Identity (Philosophical concept), Individuation (Psychology) -- Social aspects, Jungian psychology, Pépin, Ernest -- Toxic island -- Criticism and interpretation, West Indies, French -- In literature
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: The dangers behind technological progress: posthuman control in Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash.
Creator: Sedore, Monica., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: Neal Stephenson's 1992 novel Snow Crash depicts a world in which the more freedom the characters believe they have, the more control is actually being exerted upon them. I argue that Snow Crash parallels the world in which we are beginning to find ourselves today. In the modern world, we have the convenience of the Internet, which gives us the belief that we have a great deal of control over our environment. However, my argument stems from the idea that the freedom the characters believe that...
Show moreNeal Stephenson's 1992 novel Snow Crash depicts a world in which the more freedom the characters believe they have, the more control is actually being exerted upon them. I argue that Snow Crash parallels the world in which we are beginning to find ourselves today. In the modern world, we have the convenience of the Internet, which gives us the belief that we have a great deal of control over our environment. However, my argument stems from the idea that the freedom the characters believe that they are afforded in such a universe is actually another level of control being exercised upon them. I argue that our world is mimicked by the world of Snow Crash in a way that shows how truly little freedom we are given in our posthuman society.
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Date Issued: 2012
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/3355880
Subject Headings: Criticism and interpretation, Human body in popular culture, Biotechology, Social aspects, Virtual reality, Psychological aspects, Virtual reality in literature
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: ?Una nacion afro-ecuatoriana? Un estudio de "Juyungo" y "El ultimo rio" de Adalberto Ortiz y Nelson Estupinan Bass.
Creator: Ramirez, Cyntia A., Florida Atlantic University, Horswell, Michael J.
Abstract/Description: Ecuador is characterized by its variety of ethnic groups, including mestizos, Indians and African descendents that have formed a rich heritage of multiple cultures. Whereas much attention has been given to indigenous and indigenista literature, there is a large gap in Ecuador's literary criticism on its afro-Ecuadorian literature. This thesis examines two afro-Ecuadorian novels, Juyungo (1942) and El ultimo rio (1966). I explore the social and economic environment in which afro-Ecuadorians...
Show moreEcuador is characterized by its variety of ethnic groups, including mestizos, Indians and African descendents that have formed a rich heritage of multiple cultures. Whereas much attention has been given to indigenous and indigenista literature, there is a large gap in Ecuador's literary criticism on its afro-Ecuadorian literature. This thesis examines two afro-Ecuadorian novels, Juyungo (1942) and El ultimo rio (1966). I explore the social and economic environment in which afro-Ecuadorians had to live during the beginning of the 20 th century. Whereas Ecuador's contemporary racial ideology and the social construction of the individual dates from the colonial times, the authors of these afro-Ecuadorian novels contest that discrimination and racism and propose a radically different conception of the nation, one more inclusive of its diverse cultures.
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Date Issued: 2004
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/13149
Subject Headings: Ecuadorian literature--Criticism and interpretation, Ecuador--20th century--Social aspects, Ecuador--20th century--Economic aspects, Spanish American literature--Black authors, Ortiz, Adalberto--Juynungo, Estupiñán Bass, Nelson--El ultimo río, Multiculturalism--Ecuador
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: Racial Inequalities in America: Examining Socieoeconomic Statistics Using the Semantic Web.
Creator: Terrell, David J, Shankar, Ravi, Florida Atlantic University, College of Engineering and Computer Science, Department of Computer and Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Abstract/Description: The visualization of recent episodes regarding apparently unjustifiable deaths of minorities, caused by police and federal law enforcement agencies, has been amplified through today's social media and television networks. Such events may seem to imply that issues concerning racial inequalities in America are getting worse. However, we do not know whether such indications are factual; whether this is a recent phenomenon, whether racial inequality is escalating relative to earlier decades, or...
Show moreThe visualization of recent episodes regarding apparently unjustifiable deaths of minorities, caused by police and federal law enforcement agencies, has been amplified through today's social media and television networks. Such events may seem to imply that issues concerning racial inequalities in America are getting worse. However, we do not know whether such indications are factual; whether this is a recent phenomenon, whether racial inequality is escalating relative to earlier decades, or whether it is better in certain regions of the nation compared to others. We have built a semantic engine for the purpose of querying statistics on various metropolitan areas, based on a database of individual deaths. Separately, we have built a database of demographic data on poverty, income, education attainment, and crime statistics for the top 25 most populous metropolitan areas. These data will ultimately be combined with government data to evaluate this hyp othesis, and provide a tool for predictive analytics. In this thesis, we will provide preliminary results in that direction. The methodology in our research consisted of multiple steps. We initially described our requirements and drew data from numerous datasets, which contained information on the 23 highest populated Metropolitan Statistical Areas in the United States. After all of the required data was obtained we decomposed the Metropolitan Statistical Area records into domain components and created an Ontology/Taxonomy via Protege to determine an hierarchy level of nouns towards identifying significant keywords throughout the datasets to use as search queries. Next, we used a Semantic Web implementation accompanied with Python programming language, and FuXi to build and instantiate a vocabulary. The Ontology was then parsed for the entered search query and returned corresponding results providing a semantically organized a nd relevant output in RDF/XML format.
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Date Issued: 2015
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00004550, http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00004550
Subject Headings: Data mining, Education -- Demographic aspects -- United States -- Statistics, Minorities -- United States -- Social conditions, Minorities -- United States -- Statistics, Race -- United States -- Statistics, Semantic Web, United States -- Ethnic relations -- Statistics, United States -- Race relations -- Statistics
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: Promoting daily living skills for adolescents with autism spectrum disorders via parent delivery of video prompting on the iPad.
Creator: Cruz-Torres, Elisa M., Duffy, Mary L., Florida Atlantic University, College of Education, Department of Exceptional Student Education
Abstract/Description: Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) affects one out of every 68 children in the United States. The disorder is characterized by persistent deficits in social communication, social interaction, and restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, interest, or activities that together limit and impair everyday functioning. Research has shown that the use of visual resources, such as video modeling procedures, can support individuals with ASD to acquire and maintain a variety of daily living skills...
Show moreAutism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) affects one out of every 68 children in the United States. The disorder is characterized by persistent deficits in social communication, social interaction, and restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, interest, or activities that together limit and impair everyday functioning. Research has shown that the use of visual resources, such as video modeling procedures, can support individuals with ASD to acquire and maintain a variety of daily living skills leading to enhanced levels of independence.
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Date Issued: 2015
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00004358, http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00004358
Subject Headings: Autism in adolescence, Autism spectrum disorders -- Patients -- Life skills guides, Autism spectrum disorders -- Patients -- Rehabilitation, Parents of autistic children, Social skills in adolescence, Visual programming (Computer science), Youth with autism spectrum disorders -- Behavior modification
Format: Document (PDF)

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