Thesis (M.S.)--West Virginia University, 2001. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains vi, 357 p. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 134-137).

This thesis critiques contemporary scholarly approaches to the modern musical mashup that rely on outdated and over-generalized Marxist frameworks. These frameworks stem from an Adornian view of the culture industries that places consumers and producers in distinct and opposing roles. The mashup is therefore seen as little more than a subversive weapon for a resistant consumer class in its fight against the hegemonic structure of the mass media. A case study of the prominent mashup artist Girl Talk is presented to illustrate how the mashup can actually function as a celebratory form and how modern technological advances have destabilized traditional distinctions between consumer and producer. These technological advances, primarily the rise of the personal computer and the Internet, have empowered many consumers to engage with and create their own media. In the process, they have forced a cultural negotiation among existing ideological forces that reflects a dynamic and ever-changing hegemonic process.

Not available / text

Aim: The overall aim of the present thesis was to describe and examine primary care nurses´ self-reports on training, use and performance as well as experiences and actual performance of MI. Method: One qualitative and three quantitative studies were conducted among primary care nurses. A study-specific questionnaire was sent to 980 primary care nurses and 673 (69%) responded (Study I). Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 MI trained primary care nurses (Study II). MI sessions between 12 (Study III) respective 23 (Study IV) primary care nurses and patients (total 32 respective 50 sessions) were audio-recorded. Data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis, Motivational Interviewing Integrity Code, Motivational Interviewing Sequential Code for Observing Process Exchanges and statistical analysis. Results: The findings showed that primary care nurses reported and experienced lack of training in MI and lack of prerequisites for using MI (Study I-II), while training, knowledge, prerequisites and time were associated with use of MI. They also reported and experienced that MI facilitated their work with patients (Study I-II) as well as elicited their own ability to motivate and be empathetic (Study II). About half of the primary care nurses reported that they used MI (Study I), and none of the nurses (Study III) achieved the approved skill levels in MI in their recorded sessions. They overestimated their performance on six of eight aspects of MI (Study III). The most frequently used nurse talk in the recorded sessions was neutral, which is not consistent with MI. Questions and reflections directed toward change were most likely to be followed by change talk among patients (Study IV). Conclusions: Self-reported knowledge about MI and personal as well as workplace prerequisites for using it were associated with self-reported use of MI. Participating nurses´ experienced that MI requires openness, practice, support, feedback and willingness. The participating primary care nurses did not achieve approved levels of MI skills in their recorded MI sessions. Patients´ change talk is more likely to occur after open questions, complex reflections as well as after questions and reflections directed toward change. / <p>Finansisärer: Högskolan i Gävle, STROKE-Riksförbundet, Hjärt-lung fonden och Erik, Karin and Gösta Selander Stiftelse</p>

No description available.

This teacher research study examines the math talk of students in an after school Math Club with a focus on geometry. The first research question addresses the processes the students use to facilitate their talk about mathematics, while the second research question explores the classroom environment and the contextual factors that influence the students' math talk. This qualitative case study describes students' math talk in whole group discussions and within small groups over a period of five months.Ethnographic methods were used in data collection and analysis of audio and video recordings, transcripts, student artifacts, observational field notes and teacher journal entries. This study took place in a small urban school in the Southwest with twenty students from fourth and fifth grades. The population of the club included 17 Hispanic students, one African American student and two Native American students.Drawing from sociocultural theory, the findings of the study suggest that math talk occurs within a community of practice. The analysis focuses on math talk through the students' use of multiple processes as they communicate with their peers. These processes include visual cues, connecting language to mathematical concepts, opening space for peer understandings through invitations and negotiating multiple interpretations. The analysis also suggests contextual factors in the classroom environment that influence math talk. In examining three sets of sessions with different mathematical tasks, five factors were identified; characteristics of the mathematical tasks, the routines of the club, the space for the whole child, the role of the teacher and the students' engagement with the mathematical task.The implications indicate that the role of the teacher shifts to creating participation structures to establish the mathematical context that supports math talk, developing an understanding of the ways in which mathematical tasks work, and demonstrating ways of using recording devices. Teacher research provided the perspective from which I explored the students' interactions within the context of the Math Club, and provides the frame through which I reflect and share my understandings with others.

This dissertation is a teacher research study of student engagement within peer-led literature circles. Collaborating with 10 seventh grade students in my writing and literature classroom who asked to read 1984 in literature circles, I explored how students engage with each and with literature within peer-led discussion circles of a relatively difficult text. Participants were taped during peer-led literature circles and interviewed about their experiences and perspectives on engagement with peers within the context of the classroom. Using Fleck's (1935) notion of thought style and thought collective I noted that participants' talk about the novel and their perspectives on the experience was shaped by their dynamic, ever changing subject positions as adolescents, students, boys and girls, and as members of the middle class. This study explores their subject positions and how they shaped student engagement as reflected their interactions and talk for the purpose of generating a theory of social learning within this particular classroom context. Implications include the role of teacher inquiry as an integral part of literacy teaching, and the use of discourse analysis as tools for teachers, teacher educators, and researchers in developing a critical perspectives on the classrooms and teaching. Additionally, the study offers a framework for supporting teachers, teacher educators, and researchers in listening to and critically assessing peer-talk within the classroom and how such knowledge can guide reflection and inform practice.

The main causative agent of human urinary tract infections is the uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC) pathotype. It may cause disease due to its ability to express a number of bacterial virulence factors. Fimbrial adhesins are particularly important for the initial establishment of infection in the urinary tract. The fimbriae are hair-like structures protruding from the bacterial cell and by attaching to specific receptors in the urinary tract they mediate adherence to different cell types, allowing the bacteria to resist the shear forces from urine flow. The UPEC strains generally carry multiple determinants for fimbrial adhesins. Previous studies have indicated that there is a co-regulation between different fimbrial genes and one factor that has been implicated in this is the PapB protein, acting as a transcriptional regulator of P-fimbrial expression. The PapB protein can be regarded as the prototype of a family of fimbrial regulators that show high homology between different fimbrial operons. One homolog is FocB, regulator of F1C fimbriae. In this study, the role of the FocB protein in the regulation of F1C fimbriae as well as in the co-regulation with other fimbrial genes was investigated. It was observed that FocB binds to DNA, similarly to PapB, in an oligomeric fashion and that PapB and FocB can form hetero-oligomeric complexes, which appear to have a repressive role in the regulation of the F1C fimbriae. In addition, the FocB protein also had a repressive effect on transcription of the fim operon, which encodes theType 1 fimbriae. For further analysis of FocB in vitro, we developed efficient procedures for purification of the protein and established conditions for its crystal formation with the aim to conduct X-ray diffraction studies. By the hanging-drop vapour-diffusion method, we obtained crystals that in the X-ray analysis diffracted sufficiently well to allow modelling of a high resolution structure of FocB. The structural model was considered in relation to the DNA binding properties of the protein. The FocB analysis represents the first structural model of this family of transcriptional factors. This model should aid in further understanding of the roles and functions of these proteins in the regulation of the UPEC fimbrial operons. The complexity of the system, with multiple factors involved in the regulation of fimbrial operons, was revealed in earlier studies of the PapI protein showing that PapI activates transcription of the pap operon as a part of a complex with the global regulator Lrp. However, PapI itself did not appear to bind to DNA and its mode of action has remained unclear. By genetic analyses and in vitro studies we show that PapI may interact also with the α subunit of the RNA polymerase. This finding indicates that PapI might directly interact with the transcriptional apparatus and thus aid in the activation of pap expression. Bacteria are frequently releasing outer membrane vesicles (OMVs) from their surface. We studied the release of the haemolysin toxin from E. coli in connection with formation of OMVs and found that the toxin was tightly associated with the vesicles in an active form. By overproduction of the PapB or PapI regulators in order to maximise the population of bacteria expressing fimbriae, we could detect P fimbriae proteins associated with OMVs that displayed specific adhesion to receptor-coated beads. This suggests a possible scenario in which the vesicles canfunction as directed vehicles of bacterial virulence factors.

Lietuvių kalbotyroje yra tyrimų, skirtų vaikiškajai kalbai, tačiau dažniausiai dėmesys skiriamas motinos bendravimui su vaiku. Šiame darbe analizuojamas vaikiškosios kalbos registras amžiaus ir lyties požiūriu. 7 mėnesius buvo įrašinėjamas vienos šeimos bendravimas su mergaite – užfiksuoti tėvų ir senelių pokalbiai. Įsisavinant kalbą, leksika yra laikoma pirmine. Su žodyno vartojimu glaudžiai susijusi ir morfologija, todėl šiame darbe yra aptariamas kalbos dalių vartojimas, žodingumas, dažniausiai vaikui skirtoje kalboje vartojamos žodžių formos. Tėvų ir senelių pokalbiai su vaiku teikia medžiagos daiktavardžių, veiksmažodžių, būdvardžių, įvardžių, prieveiksmių ir jaustukų bei ištiktukų leksinių semantinių grupių analizei. Kaip specifiniai vaikui skirtos kalbos reiškiniai darbe analizuojami deminutyvai, kreipiniai, draudimai (neigiama liepiamoji nuosaka arba forma negalima), autoįvardijimai (savęs nurodymas vardu). Gauti rezultatai yra nauji ir svarbūs kalbos raidos tyrimams, nes atskleidžia ne tik vaikų kalbos formavimosi aplinką, bet parodo vaikiškosios kalbos registro ypatybes, nulemtas lyties ir amžiaus. / In Lithuanian linguistics there are many studies, doing research on Baby Talk, however, the most attention is often given to the communication between mother and her child. This work analyses the register of Baby Talk in terms of age and sex. For 7 months the communication of one familly with their little girl was being recorded. Conversations of parents and grandparents were captured. While mastering the language, lexicon is reputed as one the most important. The usage of vocabulary has tight relation with morphology, that is why this work presents the usage of parts of the speech and word form, that are mostly used in Baby Talk. Conversations of parents and grandparents with a child give material for analysing nouns, verbs, adverbs, interjections of lexical semantics. As a specific expressions of Baby Talk here are analysed diminutives, address forms, injunctions (negative imperative form or form cannot), self-reference. The results are new and important for the analysis of language asquisition, because they reveal not only the setting of the formation of child language, but also, show the importance Baby Talk register, determined by age and sex.

Al-Jazeera asserted itself in the global media scene shortly after the attacks of September 11th, 2001 in the United States. The station's regional prominence had already been entrenched in the new Arab media environment before it was overshadowed by the station's newfound global fame. Subsequently, al-Jazeera was considered an Arab media ambassador and the "voice of the Arab world." This dissertation provides an analysis of al-Jazeera's programming in Arabic that is lacking in the burgeoning English language academic literature. The dissertation furthermore highlights the way treatment of global current affairs informs a sense of Arab identification on a regional level. Moreover, it argues that, apart from competitive broadcast journalists, al-Jazeera offers an oppositional discourse of identification that does not necessarily challenge the hegemony of Western media discourses. By employing an oppositional stance expressed in typical anti-colonialist and anti-imperialist terms, it constructs an overarching notion of "Arabness" that is predominately discursive. / The dissertation analyzes three live talk shows: al-Ittijah al-Mu'akis (The Opposite Direction), Bila Hudoud (Without Boundaries), and Li-Nisa' Faqat (For Women Only). These talk shows are ideal sites for examining this oppositional discourse because they constitute important forums in which perceptions of identity are cultivated in the discussion of current affairs. In my analysis, each episode is treated as a media "text" that contributes to the formation of a discourse of "Arabness." The objective of the analysis is to identify the recurrent discursive patterns and strategies in providing the basis for this discursive category of identification across Arab state borders. In constructing an oppositional discourse, the United States and Israel are employed as necessary rhetorical references; Islam is infused into "Arabness" as a homogenizing constituent in identity formation; and finally, a culturally-threatened "Arabness" converges upon a context in which the world is marked by globalization. The dissertation concludes by indicating that al-Jazeera offers merely a representation of "Arabness" that, despite its power to influence, remains one way of perceiving Arab identity.