<p> This 20 minute film explores the use of hybrid lesson plans, those consisting of traditional in-class teaching and interactive video outside of the classroom. Using six voluntary Graduate Teaching Assistants as participants, the documentary follows the participants as they give their ideologies on teaching, perform either a traditional lesson plan or the hybrid lesson plan, and participate in a focus group to give their opinion on the perceived benefits or drawbacks of having hybrid lesson plans in the classroom.</p>

<p> Space-time convolutional code (STCC) is a technique that combines transmit diversity and coding to improve reliability in wireless fading channels. In this proposal, we demonstrate a systematic design of multi-level quadrature amplitude modulation (M-QAM) STCCs utilizing quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) STCC as component codes for any number of transmit antennas. Morever, a low complexity decoding algorithm is introduced, where the decoding complexity increases linearly by the number of transmit antennas. The approach is based on utilizing a group interference cancellation technique also known as combined array processing (CAP) technique. </p><p> Finally, our research topic will explore: with the current approach, a scalable STTC with better performance as compared to space- time block code (STBC) combined with multiple trellis coded modulation (MTCM) also known as STBC-MTCM; the design of low complexity decoder for STTC; the combination of our approach with multiple-input multiple-output orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (MIMO-OFDM).</p>

<p>This study examines the relevance of an established public relations theory, relationship management, to investor relations. Having emerged during the 1950s, investor relations is a relatively new field that integrates the disciplines of communication, marketing, finance, and securities laws compliance. Through qualitative interviews focused on six publicly traded companies on the West Coast, the study provides insight into the relationship management function of investor relations from the perspectives of those whom investors ultimately hold accountable for a public company&rsquo;s performance&mdash;CEOs. The dominant theme emerging from the study is the constant challenge CEOs of public companies face as they engage in relationships with investors, primarily due to the constraining effects of regulatory requirements. While the study confirmed that the interviewees value L. C. Hon and J. E. Grunig&rsquo;s qualities of trust, satisfaction, control mutuality and commitment in relationships with investors, CEOs&rsquo; most frequently discussed relationship quality that they work to achieve is trust. </p>

<p> This study examines the rhetoric used by Republican politicians regarding voter ID laws. Using Kenneth Burke's theory of cluster analysis, key words and clustering terms are analyzed to identify the speaker's worldview. The main sections include: philosophical assumptions about political rhetoric, the theoretical basis derived from Burke's <i>identification</i> and <i>victimage</i> theories, a review of literature on the history of voting in the United States, results and discussion from the analysis of selected rhetoric from Republican politicians, and areas of further study. Statements from Republican politicians in Iowa, Texas, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania were selected for the analysis. The results of the study revealed worldviews of those analyzed filled with fear and violence. There is a long history of voter discrimination in the United States and the push for voter ID laws coincide with the election of the first black President. The purpose of the proposed Republican voter ID legislation is oriented toward retaining political power, not protecting the integrity of US elections.</p>

<p>This qualitative case study described how community leaders in one East Texas community use storytelling as a leadership tool. Research questions included purpose, setting, mode, as well as possible distinctions between storytelling in for-profit and non-profit settings. The researcher interviewed six community leaders associated with an East Texas Chamber of Commerce and their direct reports, while also examining artifacts. Described purposes included education, relationship-building, and inspiration. Participants also described coaching and counseling as possible settings for stories and the importance of audience and time. Storytelling modes included oral, written, image-supported, and as a facilitation of followers&rsquo; stories. Distinctives related to for-profit or non-profit status included issues of fund-raising, concerns about manipulation, and the use of storytelling from for-profit leaders in non-profit settings. The researcher suggested the study implied the positive possibilities of storytelling as a leadership tool, but also raised ethical concerns. Another result was an observation of connections between story-facilitation and transformational leadership factors. Recommendations were made for both leadership practitioners and leadership researchers. </p>

<p> This dissertation studies historical and contemporary conservative rhetoric to argue that the political right's variant of American populism defines the rhetorical figure of "the people" as ontologically opposed to the state. This state-phobic rhetoric poses a threat to democratic deliberation, I argue, because it presumptively cancels the very appeals to shared space that tend to make democracy thrive. By turns examining the new right, the 2008 financial crisis, the 2008 presidential campaign, and the rise of the Tea Party, this dissertation suggests American democracy is trapped in a populist feedback loop that creates tragic modes of melancholic democratic politics. This democratic melancholia contributes directly to contemporary political trends of hyper-partisanship. </p>

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2006. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-02, Section: A, page: 0405. Adviser: Cara A. Finnegan. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 198-209) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

The study sought to provide evidence regarding the pedagogic value of communicative tasks in an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) setting. Previous research suggests that communicative tasks can provide conditions and promote processes which facilitate second language (L2) learning, as they encourage meaningful interaction in the L2 and learner attention to linguistic form. Interactive language use helps students to better comprehend novel language elements and to practice expressing themselves in the L2 as part of their language learning. Learner discourse while carrying out such tasks should reflect these processes. In EFL settings, where it is an ongoing challenge to provide learners with quality linguistic input and interaction opportunities, communicative tasks are seen as a promising pedagogical approach, yet relatively little is known about their implementation and outcomes in such settings. This case study investigated the nature of the oral discourse generated through the use of selected communicative tasks in a university EFL class by students working in small groups and their non-native EFL teacher, emphasizing its interactive features. It also compared the effects of two task types ( jigsaw and decision making). This study explored the students' and teacher's perceptions and attitudes with respect to the use of communicative tasks vis-a-vis the existing oral method, as well as changes in these attitudes and perceptions over a semester. Finally, it sought evidence of language learning outcomes, particularly lexical development, from these tasks. The research context was an oral academic English course for Indonesian undergraduate medical students with intermediate English proficiency. Participants included an experienced non-native English speaking teacher and her eight students who completed all the tasks and were selected as representative of the class. Examination of the students' interactions and teacher discourse when implementing and completing the tasks revealed that both jigsaw and decision making tasks worked well in the hands of an experienced non-native teacher. Both task types generated a considerable amount of interactive language as students interacted, negotiated, and cooperated during task implementation and completion. The two task types complemented each other in terms of the various aspects of language learning they promoted, their relative difficulty, and the level of students' language proficiency required. In addition, the teacher and students reported similar, positive perceptions and attitudes with regard to the use of communicative tasks, and there was anecdotal and observed evidence that the communicative tasks might facilitate lexical learning in this setting. The study contributes to our knowledge of EFL pedagogy and extends classroom-based research to EFL settings, particularly in its study of a communicative task-based methodology for promoting student interaction in an EFL setting.

Tactile communication systems provide an alternative channel of communication for people with all levels of sensory capabilities and can help those with sensory impairments to receive information through another sensory modality. Recently, a TActile Phonemic Sleeve (TAPS) has been developed with the objective of enabling people to “hear through the skin." This thesis presents three studies that evaluate the feasibility of the TAPS system for phoneme and word acquisition and for two-way tactual communication. The TAPS system is based on a phonemic-based coding scheme that uses an array of 24 (6-by-4) tactors to convey haptic stimuli on the forearm. In Study 1, an effective mechanism for learning phonemes and words with TAPS based on the theory of memory consolidation was explored. Four naive participants learned to recognize 51 words made up of 10 phonemes within 60 min of experimental time. A fifth naive participant demonstrated the ability to learn all 39 phonemes of the English language as haptic codes after a total of 80 min with a phoneme identification score of 93.8%. We found that with the distinctive set of haptic symbols that had been developed prior to this thesis, participants were able to learn phonemes and words in a short amount of time. We also validated the memory consolidation theory by showing an improvement of phoneme recognition score when the fifth naive participant was re-assessed the day after he had learned the phonemes. In Study 2, we evaluated the learning performance of longer (four-phoneme) words. A total of three experienced participants spent 20 min per day for 3 days to review 39 phonemes and 500 words (with most of the words containing two or three phonemes) that they had learned in an earlier study. They then spent 10 more days to practice and test with a word list consisting of 100 four-phoneme words (List #1). A generalization study was conducted by testing the same participants with a different set of 100 four-phoneme words (List #2) during the last 2 days of the experiment. After the 15-day experimental period, the average word percent-correct (PC) scores of the three participants for List #1 and List #2 were 80.2% and 72.3%, respectively. Both results were well above the corresponding chance levels (1% for the closed set of words in List #1 and near 0 for the open set of words in List #2) which demonstrated that the participants were able to learn longer words with the TAPS system within a reasonable amount of time. In Study 3, the feasibility of TAPS for tactile communication of spontaneous speech was evaluated. Two of the three experienced participants from Study 2 sent text messages to each other through two identical TAPS systems with an open set of words. The average percent-correct (PC) scores for the two participants for messages (PC_msg) and words (PC_word) were 73.4% and 81.7%, respectively. These results are impressive considering that the participants had to recognize words and phrases using an open vocabulary. Overall, the three studies demonstrate that the users of the TAPS system can successively receive phonemes, isolated words up to 4 phonemes in length, phrases, and sentences in a two-way exchange that simulates daily communication scenarios. Future work will explore the design of additional haptic symbols for conveying punctuation marks and investigate the efficacy of the TAPS system in helping people with sensory impairments to communicate via the sense of touch.

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