Thesis (M.A.)--Youngstown State University, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 80-83). Also available via the World Wide Web in PDF format.

Thesis advisor: Henry Braun / The State NAEP program only reports the mean achievement estimate of a subgroup within a given state if it samples at least 62 students who identify with the subgroup. Since some subgroups of students constitute small proportions of certain states’ general student populations, these low-incidence groups of students are seldom sufficiently sampled to meet this rule-of-62 requirement. As a result, education researchers and policymakers are frequently left without a full understanding of how states are supporting the learning and achievement of different subgroups of students.Using grade 8 mathematics results in 2015, this dissertation addresses the problem by comparing the performance of three different techniques in predicting mean subgroup achievement on NAEP. The methodology involves simulating scenarios in which subgroup samples greater or equal to 62 are treated as not available for calculating mean achievement estimates. These techniques comprise an adaptation of Multivariate Imputation by Chained Equations (MICE), a common form of Small Area Estimation known as the Fay-Herriot model (FH), and a Cross-Survey analysis approach that emphasizes flexibility in model specification, referred to as Flexible Cross-Survey Analysis (FLEX CS) in this study. Data used for the prediction study include public-use state-level estimates of mean subgroup achievement on NAEP, restricted-use student-level achievement data on NAEP, public-use state-level administrative data from Education Week, the Common Core of Data, the U.S. Census Bureau, and public-use district-level achievement data in NAEP-referenced units from the Stanford Education Data Archive. To evaluate the accuracy of the techniques, a weighted measure of Mean Absolute Error and a coverage indicator quantify differences between predicted and target values. To evaluate whether a technique could be recommended for use in practice, accuracy measures for each technique are compared to benchmark values established as markers of successful prediction based on results from a simulation analysis with example NAEP data. Results indicate that both the FH and FLEX CS techniques may be suitable for use in practice and that the FH technique is particularly appealing. However, before definitive recommendations are made, the analyses from this dissertation should be conducted employing math achievement data from other years, as well as data from NAEP Reading. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2021. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Research, Measurement and Evaluation.

Annually, tropical cyclones do tremendous damage and are agents of long-term coastal change. To test this idea of different tropical cyclones delivering consistent coastal change, a landform with such evolution is needed. One such landform is a spit. What contributions do tropical cyclones give toward the evolution of a spit, and do tropical cyclones give the same kinds of impacts? To determine if tropical cyclones have similar impacts, shoreline and volumetric change from four storms impacting Bolivar Peninsula are considered. Being a southwest-trended spit at a length of 33.5 kilometers, storm impacts are measured in the form of one dimensional shoreline and two dimensional volumetric change. These impacts are abstracted into shoreline change and volumetric change patterns. These patterns are identified and compared for differences between each storm and similarity among all storms. Results indicate that shoreline accretionary zones vary alongshore. Results from Hurricane Ike indicate an accretionary zone ten kilometers from the distal end. Shoreline change patterns for Hurricane Rita show an unstable accretionary zone at four kilometers from the distal end. Results for Tropical Storm Fay indicate an unstable accretionary zone that begins at the distal end and continues to the middle of the spit. In terms of similarity for shoreline change, all patterns from storms demonstrated erosion near Rollover Fish Pass. One dimensional volumetric change patterns were entirely erosive for Hurricanes Rita and Ike, and Tropical Storm Fay had by small zones of accretion near the distal portion of the spit. Tropical Storm Josephine demonstrated an accretion zone between the middle and distal portion of the spit. Results from two dimensional volumetric change patterns suggest a threshold for inland penetration. Tropical Storm Fay showed a ten to twenty meter wide pattern of erosion around five kilometers from the distal end and near the proximal end of the spit, and Hurricane Rita demonstrated a twenty meter wide pattern of erosion near the distal end. Hurricane Ike had erosive penetration of up to 200 meters around fifteen kilometers from the distal end. Results suggest that certain storms reinforce the standard spit growth model, and others work against it.

Descended from Celtic goddesses and the fairies of folklore, the literary character of Morgan le Fay has been most commonly perceived as a witch and a one-dimensional villainess who plagues King Arthur and his court, rather than recognized as the legendary King’s enchanted healer and otherworldly guardian. Too often the complexity of Morgan le Fay and her supernatural abilities are lost, her character neglected as peripheral. As a literary figure of imaginative design this thesis explores Morgan le Fay as a unique “window” into the medieval mindset, whereby one can recover both medieval understandings of magic and female magicians. By analyzing her role in key sources from the twelfth to fifteenth century, this thesis uses Morgan le Fay to recover nuanced perceptions of the supernatural in medieval England that embraced the ambiguity of a pagan past and remained insulated from continental constructions of demonic witchcraft. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2015. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

A presente dissertação tem o objetivo de analisar como o Correio do Povo construiu discursivamente o movimento estudantil no Brasil, que se colocava em franca oposição ao governo militar. Como o jornal figurou seus princípios de sociedade e de comportamento social e político projetados em um ideal de juventude determinada? Busca-se, portanto, entender os significados produzidos no jornal Correio do Povo, acerca da juventude em ebulição no ano de 1968, e deste modo, estabelecer a lógica dos posicionamentos político-ideológicos que o jornal partilhava, e assim compreender o posicionamento do periódico acerca da participação dos jovens na política. Para isso desenvolveu-se uma análise de discurso dos textos editoriais e das crônicas de Fay de Azevedo e Gustavo Corção. Dessa forma, o trabalho também procura entender como se dá a ação dos meios de comunicação na sociedade e qual foi o papel do Correio do Povo na conjuntura da época. Ao se desenvolver uma análise do discurso dos editoriais e de artigos de opinião, percebeu-se que o discurso político ideológico do jornal e de seus cronistas determina papeis diferenciados e limites de participação política aos jovens. / This dissertation aims to analyse how Correio do Povo discoursely built Brazil’s Student Movement which placed itself against the military government. How did the news paper constructed its political and social behaviour’s society principles projected in a relentless youth ideal? Therefore, it seeks to understand the meanings produced by the Correio do Povo newspaper, concerning they out the turmoil in 1968, so to stablish the logic behind the ideological and political standings the journal shared, in order to comprehend the periodical’s position about they own gone’s political engagement. To accomplish that, it was developed a discourse analysis from the editorials texts and chronicles from Fay de Azevedo and Gustavo Corção. In this way, this work aims to understand how the mass media acts on society and what was Correio do Povo’s role by the time’s context. By developing a discourse analysis from the editorials texts and opinion articles, it was realized that the journal’s ideological and political discourse, as well as their article writers, determine different roles and limits to the political engagement to the youth.

Zina ray Peirce (1336-1923), the first wife of Cnarles S. Peirce, America’s great philosopher, was a woman who devoted her life to cause of improving the position of women in America. This study examines her specific accomplishments as a reformer; attitudes about women in nineteenth-century America and the effect such attitudes had on a woman of strong intellect and character; and the influence that she and her husband had on each other.Her early and conditioned interest was to promote the idea of freeing women from domestic drudgery so that they could pursue their own talents and make themselves economically and politically independent. Although not a suffragist or a believer in the equality of the sexes, she believed that women had their own spheres of abilities and interests, as men did. Therefore, she promoted the concepts of cooperative housekeeping and of women voting for other women to represent them in a separate legislative body. The first of these ideas led to the establishment of a cooperative laundry in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1870; the second, to her participation in a Woman’s Parliament which met in New York City in 1869. Both of these endeavors are examined at length, as are her views on abolition, marriage, immigration, education, and sexual mores.The sources of information include numerous letters which she wrote; letters written by others about her; and her published works, which include a novel, pamphlets, and journal and newspaper articles.

Thesis (MA)--University of Stellenbosch, 2002. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis uses an analysis of Fay Weldon's Puffball and Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale to explore the construction of identity, particularly female identity. It takes into consideration the influence of both biology and culture on identity and explores how, within the context of the patriarchal societies depicted by the novels, female identity is closely linked to reproductive function. It examines how the construction of female identity based on reproductive function further objectifies the female body in society, and how it can aid patriarchal domination and oppression of women. The analysis of the novels draws on both essentialist and social constructionist feminist approaches to oppression and female identity. The essentialist approach views female biological difference (reproductive function) as responsible for the way in which women are oppressed. The social constructionist view argues that female oppression stems from the social construction of female identity around concepts of motherhood and femininity. The thesis takes both approaches into account as it seeks to explain how patriarchy oppresses women through the construction of female identity. The thesis also explores how control over the female body and identity can be exercised through reproductive technology. An examination of the role reproductive technology plays in contributing to patriarchal dominance, suggests that new technologies may compel women to conform to stereotypes of femininity based on pregnancy and motherhood. The thesis considers the impact infertility and the choice not to have children have on female identity and takes into account the options available to these women. The main focus, with regard to infertility and choice, is on the relationship between women who have children and those who do not. This thesis refutes the notion that there is solidarity between women based on shared childbearing experience, and focuses on the conflict that occurs between fertile and childless women. It finds that the conflict that occurs is a result of the socialisation of women into viewing motherhood as an essential aspect of 'normal' femininity. The thesis also considers what causes the desire to have children and finds that, as in the case of the conflict between women, it is as a result of socialisation and an innate/instinctual biological drive. The thesis investigates options available to women in order for them to avoid constructing their identities solely around their reproductive function. It considers the alternatives women are presented with when constructing their identity and how these may contribute to or liberate them from patriarchal oppression. If they choose to identify themselves using patriarchal norms, then they are contributing to their objectification; but if they choose to construct their identity on their own terms, and offer some resistance to patriarchal constructions, they will be more liberated than women who conform to stereotypes. Evidence of such resistance can be seen in both novels in the narrative structure the respective authors have chosen: just as the main characters subvert traditional stereotypes through the construction of their own identity, embracing female experience on their own terms, so do both authors subvert traditional narratives. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie tesis is gegrond op die analisering van die novelle Puffball deur Fay Weldon en The Handmaid's Tale deur Margaret Atwood ter ondersoek van die konstruksie van identiteit, naamlik die vroulike identiteit. Die analise neem beide die biologiese en kulturele invloed van identiteit in ag, veral binne die konteks van die patriargale samelewing wat in novelles voorkom.Die wisselwerking tussen vroulike identiteit en die funksie van reproduksie word aangeraak. Die tesis ondersoek die wyse waarop die konstruksie van die vroulike identiteit gebasseer op die reproduksie funksie, verder die vroulike liggaam binne samelewingskonteks tipeer en hoe dit indirek patriargale dominansie ondersteun sowel as die onderdrukking van die vrou. Die analise van die novelles steun sterk op beide die essensialistiese en sosiale konstruksialistiese feministiese benaderings ten opsigte van onderdrukking en vroulike identiteit. Die essensialistiese benadering blameer die vroulike biologiese verskil, met verwysing na die reproduksie funksie, vir die wyse waarop die vrou onderdruk word. In kontras hiermee, argumenteer die sosiale konstruksialistiese seining dat vroulike onderdrukking voortspruit uit die sosiale konstruksie van vroulike identiteit binne die konsep van moederskap en vroulikheid. Die tesis neem beide standpunte in ag daar dit hom ten doel stelom te verduidelik waarom patriargie die vrou onderdruk deur die konstruksie van die vroulike identiteit. Die tesis fokus ook op die wyse waarop kontrole oor die vroulike liggaam en identiteit uitgeoefen kan word deur die reproduktiewe tegnologie. 'n Ondersoek na die rol wat reproduktiewe tegnologie speel ter ondersteuning van patriargale dominansie, argumenteer dat nuwe tegnologieë "Toue kan verplig tot die konformering van stereotipes van vroulikheid gebasseer op swangerskap en moederskap. Die analise neem ook die impak wat onvrugbaarheid op die vroulike identiteit het, in ag , sowel as die besluit om nie kinders te hê nie. Verder neem dit ook die verskeie opsies wat beskikbaar is vir die vrou wat daarteen besluit om kinders te hê, in ag, sover dit die konstruksie van identiteit raak. Die hooffokus met betrekking tot onvrugbaarheid en keuse, is gebasseer op die verhouding tussen vroue wat wel kinders het en diegene wat kinderloos is. Die tesis weerlê die idee dat daar solidariteit is tussen vroue gebasseer op gedeelde ervarings en gemeenskaplike doelwitte en begeertes en fokus op die konflik wat ontstaan tussen kinderlose en vrugbare vroue. Die ondersoek ondervind dat die konflik wat onstaan, 'n produk is van die sosialisering van vroue met die idee van moederskap as 'n essensiële aspek van "normale" vroulikheid. Die tesis ondersoek ook die oorsake van die begeerte om kinders te hê en ondervind dat, soos ook die geval met konflik, dit die produk is van sosialisering en instinktiefbiologies gedrewe is. Die tesis ondersoek die opsies beskikbaar vir die vrou ten einde haar te verhoed om die konstruksie van haar identiteit te grond alleenlik op die reproduktiewe funksie. Die analise neem die alternatiewe waarmee die vrou gekonfronteer word tydens die konstruksieproses, in aanmerking, en bevraagteken die wyse waarop hierdie alternatiewe kan bydra tot , of die bevryding van, die patriargale onderdrukking. Indien die vrou verkies om haarself te identifiseer deur patriargale norme te gebruik sal sy bydra tot haar objektivering binne die tradisionele patriargale konteks; maar indien sy kies om haar eie identiteit te konstruktueer volgens haar eie norme en terselfdertyd patriargale konstruksie teenstaan, sal sy meer geëmansipeerd wees as haar eweknie wat tot die stereotipe gekonformeer het. Deel van die weerstand wat voorkom in beide novelles, kan opgemerk word in die naratiewe struktuur gekies deur die skrywer. Paralelle word aangetref tussen enersyds, die wyse waarop die hoofkarakters hulself aan die tradisionele stereotipes ondermyn deur die konstruksie van hul eie identiteit, terselfdertyd deur die koestering van vroulike ervarings, en andersyds die wyse waarop beide skrywers hulself aan tradisionele naratiewe onderwerp.

A presente dissertação tem o objetivo de analisar como o Correio do Povo construiu discursivamente o movimento estudantil no Brasil, que se colocava em franca oposição ao governo militar. Como o jornal figurou seus princípios de sociedade e de comportamento social e político projetados em um ideal de juventude determinada? Busca-se, portanto, entender os significados produzidos no jornal Correio do Povo, acerca da juventude em ebulição no ano de 1968, e deste modo, estabelecer a lógica dos posicionamentos político-ideológicos que o jornal partilhava, e assim compreender o posicionamento do periódico acerca da participação dos jovens na política. Para isso desenvolveu-se uma análise de discurso dos textos editoriais e das crônicas de Fay de Azevedo e Gustavo Corção. Dessa forma, o trabalho também procura entender como se dá a ação dos meios de comunicação na sociedade e qual foi o papel do Correio do Povo na conjuntura da época. Ao se desenvolver uma análise do discurso dos editoriais e de artigos de opinião, percebeu-se que o discurso político ideológico do jornal e de seus cronistas determina papeis diferenciados e limites de participação política aos jovens. / This dissertation aims to analyse how Correio do Povo discoursely built Brazil’s Student Movement which placed itself against the military government. How did the news paper constructed its political and social behaviour’s society principles projected in a relentless youth ideal? Therefore, it seeks to understand the meanings produced by the Correio do Povo newspaper, concerning they out the turmoil in 1968, so to stablish the logic behind the ideological and political standings the journal shared, in order to comprehend the periodical’s position about they own gone’s political engagement. To accomplish that, it was developed a discourse analysis from the editorials texts and chronicles from Fay de Azevedo and Gustavo Corção. In this way, this work aims to understand how the mass media acts on society and what was Correio do Povo’s role by the time’s context. By developing a discourse analysis from the editorials texts and opinion articles, it was realized that the journal’s ideological and political discourse, as well as their article writers, determine different roles and limits to the political engagement to the youth.

A presente dissertação tem o objetivo de analisar como o Correio do Povo construiu discursivamente o movimento estudantil no Brasil, que se colocava em franca oposição ao governo militar. Como o jornal figurou seus princípios de sociedade e de comportamento social e político projetados em um ideal de juventude determinada? Busca-se, portanto, entender os significados produzidos no jornal Correio do Povo, acerca da juventude em ebulição no ano de 1968, e deste modo, estabelecer a lógica dos posicionamentos político-ideológicos que o jornal partilhava, e assim compreender o posicionamento do periódico acerca da participação dos jovens na política. Para isso desenvolveu-se uma análise de discurso dos textos editoriais e das crônicas de Fay de Azevedo e Gustavo Corção. Dessa forma, o trabalho também procura entender como se dá a ação dos meios de comunicação na sociedade e qual foi o papel do Correio do Povo na conjuntura da época. Ao se desenvolver uma análise do discurso dos editoriais e de artigos de opinião, percebeu-se que o discurso político ideológico do jornal e de seus cronistas determina papeis diferenciados e limites de participação política aos jovens. / This dissertation aims to analyse how Correio do Povo discoursely built Brazil’s Student Movement which placed itself against the military government. How did the news paper constructed its political and social behaviour’s society principles projected in a relentless youth ideal? Therefore, it seeks to understand the meanings produced by the Correio do Povo newspaper, concerning they out the turmoil in 1968, so to stablish the logic behind the ideological and political standings the journal shared, in order to comprehend the periodical’s position about they own gone’s political engagement. To accomplish that, it was developed a discourse analysis from the editorials texts and chronicles from Fay de Azevedo and Gustavo Corção. In this way, this work aims to understand how the mass media acts on society and what was Correio do Povo’s role by the time’s context. By developing a discourse analysis from the editorials texts and opinion articles, it was realized that the journal’s ideological and political discourse, as well as their article writers, determine different roles and limits to the political engagement to the youth.

Fay Weldon is a popular, prolific author whose oeuvre stretches from 1967 to the present and includes 20 novels, three collections of short stories and numerous stage, radio and television plays, scripts and adaptations. This thesis limits itself to her fiction and follows the chronological course of Weldon's writing career in five chapters. Fay Weldon's fiction, situated at the intersection of postmodemism and feminism, is doubly subversive. It both overturns 'reasonable' narrative conventions and wittily deconstructs the specious terminology used to define women. Weldon's disobedient female protagonists - madwomen, criminals, outcasts and she-devils - assert the power of the Other. Gynocentric themes - single parenthood, sisterhood, reproduction, motherhood, sex and marriage - are transformed by Weldon into uproarious feminist revenge comedy. This she achieves through an intertextuality which often involves unorthodox typography, genreswopping and metafictional devices. Moreover, a unique ventriloquism enables her omniscient first-person narrators to mimic 'Fay Weldon' herself. Since her narrators are rebels and iconoclasts, Weldon has always been viewed as a subversive individual worthy of media attention, especially interviews. For this reason, and because she is a woman writer who struggled initially against social and domestic odds, the thesis incorporates in its argument the author's biography and public personae. Chapter One explores the connections between Weldon's first novels - notably Down Among the Women (1971) - and early liberationist and anthropological feminism. In Chapter Two, Bakhtin's dialogic imagination and Derrida's differance provide the basis for a discussion of multiplicity in Weldon's novels of the late 1970s, particularly Praxis (1979), shortlisted for the Booker prize. Chapter Three tests the limits of a psychoanalytical model in accounting for Weldon's novels of (m)Otherhood, including The Life and Loves of a SheDevil (1983). Theories of humour and carnival inform Chapter Four's analysis of how Weldon's wit - at its tendentious best in The Heart of the Country (1987) - declines into innocence. Finally, Chapter Five sees Weldon's flagging literary reputation as the symptom of authorial exhaustion and retreat from a feminist agenda. This concluding chapter is, however, ultimately optimistic that the mercurial author's undeniable talents may reassert themselves / English Studies / D.Litt. et Phil. (English)