Thesis (M.C.E.)--University of Delaware, 2008. / Principal faculty advisors: Harry Shenton and Michael J. Chajes, Dept. of Civil & Environmental Engineering. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Florida State University, 1994. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 316-322).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Florida State University, 1994. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 316-322).

AN ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS OF Kirsten Dvorak, for the Master's of Science degree in Behavior Analysis and Therapy, presented on *October 17, 2014, at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. TITLE: AN EVALUATION OF THE USE OF BST TO TEACH A DATA COLLECTION PROCEDURE TO PARENTS OF CHILDREN WITH DISABILITIES MAJOR PROFESSOR: Dr. Joel Ringdahl Behavioral skills training (BST) has been utilized with many different populations for a variety of purposes. This training package has been employed for the purposes of either behavior reduction or skill acquisition and has been successfully employed with staff, parents, and individuals with intellectual disabilities. This present study utilized a BST training package to teach ABC data collection to three parents of children with disabilities. This study extended Shand and Miltenberger's (2013) study by including a post-BST component where the parents collected data on their own children. This study included this component to help determine if the skills learned during BST could be generalized. Two week follow-up sessions were conducted as well. Results indicated that the percentage of correct ABC data forms increased post-BST, and were maintained at follow-up. The study suggested that the skills were generalized to the parent's own children. These results propose that behavioral skills training is an effective method to teach parents to collect data on their children. Future research should be conducted to include longer follow up sessions, and future research should also replicate the study. Replication with similar results would further prove that the skills were generalized to children of the participants following the BST training package.

This dissertation is a collection of poems preceded by a critical preface. The preface considers Anthony’s Hecht’s long poem, “The Venetian Vespers,” and the ways in which the temporally unsettled situation of the poem’s speaker parallels a problem facing narrative-meditative poets. The preface is divided into two main sections that explore divisions of this larger conflict. The first discusses the origins and effects of the speaker’s uprootedness in time, and the ways in which he tries to both combat and embrace this dislocation by temporarily losing himself in the immediacy of observing visual art. In this section I connect the dilemma of the speaker, who wishes to escape his memory by focusing outwards, to the dilemma of a representational poet who, despite his position towards the past, must necessarily confront or recollect memories and emotions in order to create authentic descriptions or characters. The second section focuses on the production and appreciation of artistic works (both visual and literary) and how the meaning, production and appreciation of beauty are inseparable from its existence within the physical limits of time. Here I discuss the significance of Hecht’s character who is surrounded with beauty yet describes himself as a person who only observes and does not create anything. Through this character, I argue that Hecht reveals a fundamental conflict that exists between artistic creation and chronological time, and that his poem embodies a particular and paradoxical view of beauty that resonates deeply with the motivations and struggles of writing poems.

Unclean Slates: Stories is a collection of seven short stories that comments on the nature of family ties, and how such ties help form a sense of identity. Each story focuses on a separate protagonist, all of whom strive for a new beginning or an escape from some aspect of their current lives. The short story cycle of this collection is held together not by place or characters, but ultimately by the theme of wishing for a new beginning: they share a desire to fix some dissatisfying element of their lives. Mostly from the point of view of blue-collar characters leading mundane middle-class lives, these stories provide commentary on what it means to run from the conditions that make up one's sense of identity. Most of the revelations formed throughout these stories lead to a sense of acceptance of these conditions, and an understanding that family and history make up part of human consciousness. While the specific locations presented in these stories are not necessarily the same, each story seeks to focus on a location that proves to be fundamental to the makeup of the protagonist. The cities and geographic locations themselves are not as important as the specifics: the schools, diners, lakes, and so forth where these characters find themselves contemplating their disillusionment about where their lives have brought them. Facing everything from postpartum depression to simply missing out on a career opportunity, these characters all experience a sense of loss that brings them together in a way that is recognizable to the reader as the collection progresses.

Collection of poems.

A collection of Short Stories involving the strange, the fantastic, the perverse, and the uncanny experiences of human existence.

Preventable Conditions is a collection of literary short stories intended to explore themes of familial communication, complementary dysfunctions, and the degree to which we all try to hide from or correct our own mistakes. The first five stories in the collection are related, while the last three stand alone. Each of the stories before “Fair Grounds” is told from the perspective of a different member of the Powell family, a fictional clan from Marietta, Georgia. The Powell family stories largely adhere to the basic conventions of realism, while the three remaining pieces venture closer to the absurd.

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