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The reason for this thesis project was not necessarily to create a thing, but rather to create a basis of thought on Architecture. An idea about Architecture which had to come from a strong architecturally philosophical foundation. Thus, this thesis is about establishing and then solidifying a structure of thought from which I could continue my education, by asking questions of Architecture, and then create a position of strength from which I could base my design decisions on. The fundamental idea is that of a city as a great communal room created over time by its inhabitants, from smaller rooms, neighborhoods. This room is in constant evolutionary change as it continues to define itself physically for its time and place in history. But the city is not just a physical thing, it is also a sense of place, of belonging to a moment in history, and to a distinct place in the world. / Master of Architecture

Self-report retrospective estimates of sleep behaviors are not as accurate as prospective estimates from sleep diaries, but are more practical for epidemiological studies. Therefore, it is important to evaluate the validity of retrospective measures and improve upon them. The current study compared sleep diaries to two self-report retrospective measures of sleep, the commonly used Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and a newly developed sleep questionnaire (SQ), which assessed weekday and weekend sleep separately. It was hypothesized that the new measure would be more accurate than the PSQI because it accounts for variability in sleep throughout the week. The relative accuracy of the PSQI and SQ in obtaining estimates of total sleep time (TST), sleep efficiency (SE), and sleep onset latency (SOL) was examined by comparing their mean differences from, and correlations with, estimates obtained by the sleep diaries. Correlations of the PSQI and SQ with the sleep diaries were moderate, with the SQ having significantly stronger correlations on the parameters of TST, SE, and sleep quality ratings. The SQ also had significantly smaller mean differences from sleep diaries on SOL and SE. The overall pattern of results indicated that the SQ performs better than the PSQI when compared to sleep diaries.

Thesis (M.A.)--Slippery Rock University, 2002. / Title from screen. Includes bibliographical references.

Willa Cather believed literature and journalism were separate and unequal genres. During her decade in Pittsburgh (1896-1906), as she gained recognition as a literary artist, she increasingly censored her early journalism and apprentice fiction. My dissertation promotes the recovery of these writings, especially the unsigned and pseudonymous pieces contained in two affiliated journals she served as an editor: Home Monthly the National Stockman and Farmer. My first chapter describes more then forty additional items from Home Monthly and the Stockman, including poetry, short fiction, and editorials. Annotated tables of contents and contributors' lists for both journals (1896-97) and maps and period photographs are offered in appendices.<br>Employing the methodology of New Historicism, my dissertation returns little regarded works to their approximate contexts of publication. Chapter 2 reads Cather's story "The Conversion of Sun Loo" (1900) as part of the debate over proselytizing the Chinese within the Library, a Pittsburgh magazine whose brief life (Spring and Summer of 1900) coincided with the Boxer rebellion in North China. "Sum Loo," it argues, is a satire upon recent events linking China and Pittsburgh's small Chinese colony.<br>The third chapter recovers a journalistic prototype for a story Cather held among her most "literary." Although Cather preferred to say "Paul's Case" (1905) was inspired by her teaching experience, she borrowed its plot from the city papers of November 1902, which reported the theft of $1,500 from the offices of the Denny Estate by two Pittsburgh boys. This chapter examines not only Cather's adaptation of extra-literary sources, but also her ambivalence toward her first career in journalism.<br>The final chapter concerns two late novellas, "Uncle Valentine" (1922) and "Double Birthday" (1929), written more than a decade after Cather's last physical visit to the city. Both use memories of Pittsburgh and Allegheny City at the turn of the century to attack suburbanization and class stratification, twin problems that she thought were eroding the nation's social fabric in the 1920s. / McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts; / English / PhD; / Dissertation;

Sports fandoms can form a key site of identity formation, particularly as they gather and merge numerous threads of identity, including gender, socio-economic status, and civic affiliation. The connections formed between members of the fandom, the fandom and the team, and the fandom and the place in which it is grounded can be a strong force for social cohesion. This cohesion becomes particularly relevant during times of crisis, when some turn to sports as a unifier. However, these relationships can also be fraught with tensions, within the group and without. Forces such as nostalgia and the ‘othering’ of those outside the group become import methods in creating and sustaining these Andersonian “imaginary communities” of fans, mitigating difference. In examining this process of identity creation, two cities were chosen for their intense team attachments: Pittsburgh and Baltimore. Qualitative analysis of discourses surrounding the teams in these cities reveals the complex ways in which nostalgic fantasies about the team and its relationship to the city are created and maintained, hierarchies of space and time are formed, and the identity of the community is shaped by its relationship to team and city. Analysis of the sporting landscape, created through a complex network of material culture, media, and the repetition of certain fantasy themes, reveals how geography is complexly implicated in the production of sporting fandom. / text

In an era of struggling public educational systems, the Allegheny County Propel Schools organization has made great strides to improve academic performance while producing students who are also great citizens. From their founding less than a decade ago, a clear vision and approach to education, captured in a handful of Promising Principles, has been an unquestionable part of their success. As the organization grows and new schools are planted, Propel must find effective means of replicating their model to ensure that each Propel school is as successful as the others. With this project, the author aims to prove that design and designers have an important role to play in helping this type of organization reach their goals without approaching the situation from a problem-solving, artifact-based angle. Instead, the author deliberately departs from a discipline-specific design approach to engage strategically with an organization devoted to social impact; through this relationship she uses design methodology in a non-traditional setting to show that the power of fully immersive collaboration is greater than the power of design alone. The result is a set of design recommendations for a systemic model of replication that is both sensitive to the organization’s culture and forward-thinking in its approach. This model, paired with the introduction of a new job position and virtual assistant, is a comprehensive proposal for helping the organization plan for future growth. It is meant to provide a foundation for what is possible, a framework for visualizing the potential, attainable next steps.

In the novel The Stringer, Perla Coughlin has evacuated Pittsburgh following a biological attack. Now, at a Red Cross Shelter in Ohio, she slowly strings a racket as she tells a volunteer about her past, Pittsburgh's past, and what might lay ahead for both. Characters grapple with their ignorance toward environmental warning signs, the hidden costs of technology, and the disquieting ways in which apocalypses reveal "who we really are." The first-person novel relies heavily on the epistolary tradition as well as Oulipean conventions of form and structure. Tennis serves as a unifying force amongst the four main characters, and the 2010 U.S. Census provides the vehicle through which terrorists launch their plot. The novel aims at a return toward Pittsburgh, but returning home is easier said that done. The city and its industries have been fundamentally changed. Personal secrets have been brought to light. Perla's fierce loyalty to her city makes forgiveness as tall as task as clawing her way back to Pittsburgh.