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The linguistic features of bias in the news
Full text linkThis dissertation aims to determine what linguistic characteristics can reveal about bias in news and whether variation in linguistic characteristics, namely grammatical and lexical features, happen systematically across clines of political leaning and extent (i.e., severity of bias). Through an examination of key features and keywords in news texts divided into groups of political leanings of left and right and divided into groups by extent (extreme bias and no bias), this aim is accomplished. This study demonstrates that media bias, namely gatekeeping, coverage, and presentation bias can be examined via corpus linguistic methods and suggests that lexical and grammatical information are contributing to perceptions of direction and extent of bias. Importantly, it also demonstrates ways in which a researcher can avoid making subjective decisions about bias by relying on exploratory methods of register variation.
The research in this study is conducted through six major steps: (1) compilation of a corpus of newspaper publications for which topic and time are closely controlled, (2) the collection of reader perceptions on the extent and direction of bias of each collected newspaper text, (3) a nuanced examination of key grammatical features and a comparison of their functions across biased and unbiased texts, (4) an analysis and comparison of the keywords that occur in both biased and unbiased texts (5) a comparison of key features across texts perceived as right (a.k.a. conservative) to those perceived as left (a.k.a liberal) (6) and an analysis and comparison of keywords that occur in texts perceived as conservative to those perceived as liberal.
Results suggest systematic linguistic differences in the following ways: key features of left leaning texts show that this group maintains a formal tone, involvement at the group level, and covertly reveals stance via non-finite clauses while the keywords reveal a concern for social issues (particularly those related to equality), a sentiment of aggression and political unrest, and a more frequent on Trump. Conversely, right leaning texts are colloquial in tone, involved at the individual level, and covertly reveal stance via reported speech. The keywords for the right leaning group demonstrate a concern for political issues (particularly illegal immigration and a loss of constitutional freedoms), the actions of former presidents, and a negative evaluation of the liberal left. Texts perceived as extreme in their bias include features marked for epistemic and attitudinal stance, clausal and phrasal elaboration, description, emphasis, and evaluation and the keywords reveal a concern for both political and social issues, political actors, and opposing negative evaluations of both democrats and republicans. Key features and keywords for texts rated as no bias include features related to reporting what happened (who, what, when, and where). The differences are, for the most part, attributable to a functional or evaluative difference related to direction or extent of bias
The effect of attitude and speaking tasks on heritage Spanish speakers' production of rhythm, lexical stress and speech rate
Full text linkThis dissertation examines heritage language learners of Spanish enrolled in university Spanish courses, focusing on their strategic use of suprasegmental speech features in two speaking tasks. The research investigates attitudes' influence on heritage language learners’ speech production in different task types. Participants engaged in two Spanish spoken registers, completing attitude surveys alongside speech tasks. The analysis of heritage language learners' attitudes and speech patterns across different speaking tasks reveals pivotal implications.
Firstly, task types significantly influence attitudes, with private, conversational settings eliciting higher confidence and more positive language attitudes compared to public, monologic tasks. This suggests a need for diversified pedagogical approaches, emphasizing personalized conversational tasks while integrating scaffolded monologic tasks to build up learners' confidence in public speaking situations. Additionally, the study highlights the complex relationship between language use and attitude stability, indicating that less frequent engagement with the heritage language may lead to more varied attitudes among learners.
This research underscores the influence of task types on speech patterns, emphasizing the adaptability of heritage speakers in addressing linguistic demands based on situational characteristics like familiarity and anxiety. It also highlights the importance of task diversity in shaping positive language attitudes among heritage language learners. Based on these findings, it is proposed here that there is a need for pedagogical strategies that accommodate varying task types to enhance language proficiency while acknowledging the influence of language background on attitude stability. Finally, this project sheds light on the intricate relationship between attitudes, speech patterns, and task types, and subsequently calls for the inclusion of task effect in evaluating proficiency and designing effective language instruction for heritage language learners
Poop to Prosperity: Advancing Human Excrement Composting Research Through Microbiome Science and Educational Innovations
No full textExponential population growth and climate change have intensified the need for sustainable waste management solutions, particularly in treating human excrement. While traditional wastewater treatment systems offer benefits such as disease reduction and community sanitation, they are resource intensive, requiring substantial water, energy, and financial investments, and fail to address the sanitation needs of over 2 billion people, exacerbating environmental and public health challenges. This dissertation evaluates composting human excrement using composting toilets as a sustainable alternative, supporting the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 6, which aims to ensure equitable sanitation for all.
Using molecular biology techniques including 16S rRNA gene sequencing and qPCR, along with more traditional culture-based methods, this dissertation investigates microbial dynamics and pathogen reduction in mesophilic composting processes. The primary study provides valuable insights into microbial succession patterns and pathogen management, revealing opportunities to enhance composting methods for increased safety and efficiency. Despite the growing adoption of composting toilets and their critical role in achieving Goal 6, further research into their microbial dynamics is an essential step for broader acceptance and efficacy.
Next-generation sequencing (NGS) and multi-omics tools are highlighted as promising avenues for advancing composting research. These technologies offer potential for bioprospecting, bioengineering, and optimizing composting processes to improve efficiency and pathogen control. This work also emphasizes the significance of educational initiatives, particularly model-based inquiry (MBI) curricula in higher education, in addressing waste management challenges and fostering acceptance of composting human excrement.
An implementation strategy for a proposed “living laboratory” aims to unite and advance both research and education, establishing it as a central hub for sustainable human excrement management. By integrating research findings with educational efforts, this dissertation contributes to the development of innovative waste treatment practices that support global sanitation goals and promote environmental sustainability. This work advocates for a "browner revolution" in waste management, emphasizing the need for transformative approaches to tackle global sanitation and environmental challenges by advancing the use of excrement composting technologies
An investigation of the minimum web reinforcement requirements for slender and non-slender beams
No full textPrescriptive shear requirements from ACI 318 (2019), AASHTO LRFD (2020), and the fib Model Code (2010) stipulate that both slender and non-slender beams must satisfy a minimum web reinforcement requirement. At the very minimum, slender beams require an area of web reinforcement equal to 0.08% of the cross-section placed in the vertical direction, while non-slender beams require up to 0.3% in both the vertical and horizontal directions. This investigation aims to evaluate these minimum web reinforcement requirements in terms of the strength and serviceability behavior of beams based on the results of experimental test data. Databases of shear tests on slender and non-slender beams with web reinforcement is compiled from existing, validated and peer-reviewed datasets. The aim of this study is accomplished through an analysis of these databases. Given the context of this investigation and available data, the results show that a minimum web reinforcement of at least: 0.08% for beams with a f′c 4,000-psi for ACI 318 (2019) is an adequate amount to ensure that the predicted shear strength will be greater than or equal to the experimental shear strength of slender beams, consistent with the recommendations of MacGregor and Hanson (1969) and Roller and Russell (1990); √(f_c^' )⁄f_v for the shear strength of slender beams for AASHTO LRFD (2020) and the fib Model Code (2010), consistent with the results of Shahrooz et al. (2011); 0.12% for the strength of non-slender beams; and 0.25% to restrain cracks widths to less than or equal to 0.016-inches for ACI 318 (2019), AASHTO LRFD (2020), and the fib Model Code (2010) for slender and non-slender beams. Based on these findings, the minimum web reinforcement for strength is consistent with that of the code for slender beams but not deep beams, and the minimum web reinforcement for serviceability is consistent with that of the code for neither slender nor non-slender beams. The prescriptive web reinforcement requirements for slender and non-slender beams do not appear to be derived from the same criteria—at least in the American building and bridge codes. The minimum web reinforcement requirement for slender beams is likely derived based on these members achieving their predicted strength, while the requirement for non-slender beams is likely derived based on these members exhibiting crack widths less than or equal to 0.016-inches while in service
Women on the bus: transit experiences in Flagstaff
No full textIn 2001, the Mountain Line bus system began operations in Flagstaff, AZ, after voters approved a tax increase for transit funding. This political decision impacted Flagstaff’s historical and geographic movement, embodied experiences, and everyday practices —or “constellations of mobility” (Cresswell, 2010) of older women of color and other groups at the social margins. In the United States, women are the social sector that uses transit the most (Lee et al., 2017). Yet social scientists in Northern Arizona have overlooked the Mountain Line bus as an epistemic space worth attention over two decades. A gap exists in analyzing the bus from a gender perspective. This gap highlights hidden structures of oppression and violence toward older women in urban settings.
This study is grounded in a sociological framework combining Marxism, Constructivist Structuralism, and Decolonial Feminism to explore public transportation-related mobility experiences of older women of color in Flagstaff. Participant observations on all Mountain Line routes and semi-structured interviews with four female riders who identify as Hispanic and Navajo, two transit officers, and one driver indicate that older women of color in Flagstaff suffer social exclusion due to the transportation disadvantages they face. This exclusion amplifies the gender data gap on their transit needs, reinforces stigmas imposed on the bus in the United States, and results in a non-universal infrastructure characterized by racist, ageist, and misogynistic social dynamics. In this oppressive context, older women of color develop sophisticated strategies to navigate transit systems in the city, facing time control, infrastructure conditions, and safety burdens that constitute issues that impact their transit experiences
The road to success
Full text linkBy investigating the role of highways in the Brazilian Amazon rainforest, I emphasize the need to reassess the conventional approach to development that separates economic and environmental concerns. Arguing that the logic of purity, which treats these domains as mutually exclusive, should be replaced with an understanding of the world as already in ruination. Drawing upon Anna Tsing's ideas, the study proposes a form of salvage development that recognizes the interconnection of economic and environmental aspects, while acknowledging the inherent ruination driven by markets and/or states. The paper raises several questions concerning the costs and benefits of these contrasting approaches and explores the possibility of reconciling them through salvage development. This alternative paradigm is rooted in diversity, contamination, and ruination. Thus concluding that, sustainable road infrastructure in the Brazilian Amazon is essential for fostering social and economic growth while minimizing environmental harm
Reciprocity, interdependence, and the commons: how community garden organizers engage in transformative practices in a local context
Full text linkGlobally and locally, we are living through the climate crisis and its effects (IPCC, 2021). Change is clearly needed, yet environmentalists differ in their approaches. In this research, I wanted to understand radical approaches to environmental action in the context of community garden organizing. Community gardens are often seen as local solutions to the climate crisis (Artmann & Sartison, 2018; Dor et al., 2021; Mancebo, 2018) yet they are often organized through mainstream environmental approaches that are limited in their ability to address the root causes of the climate crisis (Engel-Di Mauro, 2018; McClintock, 2014; Walker, 2015). I look specifically at ecofeminist organizing practices within six collective gardens by interviewing nine collective garden organizers. I define collective gardens as gardens where most if not all of the garden is collectively managed, and there are few to no individualized plots. I found that collective gardens engage with transformative practices by demonstrating practices of reciprocity, interdependence, and the commons. These community-building elements (reciprocity, interdependence, and the commons) help to make these gardens alternatives to the capitalist system in the ways that they relate to humans, more-than-human beings, and the land beyond capitalist relations. Collective gardens can help us imagine alternative futures beyond capitalist ideology. These findings suggest that collective gardens may be ideal spaces to engage in building resilience through community building, and are ideal spaces to connect us to the more-than-human world, a critical component to engage with the climate crisis holistically
Communicative function and linguistic variation in state statutory law
Full text linkStatutory law has the power to create, modify, and terminate legal rights and obligations of everyday individuals. Even so, statutory language remains understudied from an empirical, linguistic perspective, in particular, in relation to the different ways in which statutory provisions modify and prescribe human behaviors. As the interpretation of statutory language is a critical part of the judicial process in the United States, the aim of this study is to provide a detailed linguistic description of statutory language, focusing on patterns of variation between texts serving different communicative functions (e.g., prohibition of actions, authorization of actions).
In order to explore this variation, a framework of functional types of statutory provisions was developed in order to classify statutory texts into groups based on the function that they serve. This framework consists of seven functional types of provisions: Duties, Permissions, Impersonal Rules, Operational Definitions, Prohibitions, Procedural Guidelines and Criminal Offenses. One thousand statutes were sampled from the Arizona State Code, and each subsection of those statutes (i.e., A., B., C.) was classified by the communicative function it served in accordance with the framework. This resulted in a corpus of 2,972 statutory texts organized into seven sub-corpora representing distinct functional types of statutory provisions. The first analysis in the study was non-linguistic, focusing on the description of the relationship between functional types of statutory provisions and ‘titles’ in the Arizona State Code (broad areas of subject matter; e.g., Environment, Public Health, Education). Following this, keyword and key feature analyses were conducted in order to examine the extent to which functional types of statutory provisions exhibit systematic patterns of lexical and lexico-grammatical variation.
Results from the linguistic analyses indicate that state statutory law is a linguistically varied register, and that some functional types of statutory provisions are more linguistically distinct than others. Criminal Offenses appear to be the most lexico-grammatically distinct, with 11 positive key features and 26 negative key features, many with large effect sizes (measured through Cohen’s d). This is in contrast to other functional types, such as Impersonal Rules and Prohibitions, each of which have 2-3 key features with small effect sizes. Operational Definitions and Procedural Guidelines are the most lexically distinct functional types, each with over 100 keywords. This is in contrast to the other five functional types of statutory provisions, each of which have fewer than 30 keywords. In addition to this, key features indicate that there is a divide between functional types of statutory provisions that function for description and identification (e.g., Operational Definitions and Impersonal Rules), and those that concern the regulation of human actions (e.g., Duties and Permissions).
Overall, this study demonstrates that there is considerable linguistic variation within the register of state statutory law that can be attributed to the function of the statutory provision. This suggests that those who interpret the law would benefit from considering the influence of communicative function in statutes
Facilitating data communication between supervised modules in a distributed unmanned aerial vehicle software architecture
Full text linkThis thesis addresses the challenges and inefficiencies associated with traditional very high frequency (VHF) radio tag-based wildlife tracking methods. Researchers have historically relied on manual tracking, involving extensive travel to remote locations and the use of handheld radios for signal detection. This approach consumes significant time and resources, hampering research efforts to understand animal behavior, demographics, and habitat utilization. To mitigate these challenges, this thesis proposes a robust and versatile distributed software architecture that leverages modern technologies to enhance the precision and effectiveness of VHF radio tagging data collection. This architecture is specifically tailored to operate on companion computers with hardware limitations, which are deployed on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). UAVs offer a novel solution that not only enhances tracking efficiency but also overcomes obstacles related to terrain affordance and minimizing disturbances to local wildlife. The findings of this thesis will contribute to the broader field of wildlife research by demonstrating the feasibility and benefits of UAV-based VHF radio tagging, paving the way for more accurate and efficient data collection in the future
Predictive current control of permanent magnet synchronous motor for electric vehicles
Full text linkElectric vehicles (EVs) are becoming more popular and dominating internal combustion engine vehicles from a decade due to high efficiency, low emissions, high reliability, high availability, increased cost competitiveness, and improved vehicle ranges. Permanent magnet synchronous motors and two-level voltage source inverter are nowadays popularly used in the EVs.
The digital control methods for traction inverter and motor improve the overall efficiency and performance of an EV and increase the range of EV for the given battery power. In the majority of commercial EVs, the linear control method such as maximum torque per ampere (MTPA) control with proportional-integral regulators and space vector modulation is a proven solution to control the interior permanent magnet synchronous motors with constant switching frequency and minimal steady-state errors. Despite the known control theory, the nonlinearities cannot be incorporated into the linear controllers. The low switching frequency operation of traction inverters lead to sluggish transient response. Moreover, proportional integral regulators are highly sensitive to the parameter variations.
More advanced control methods are needed to increase the energy conversion efficiency and dynamic performance of permanent magnet synchronous motor in EV applications. Among the class of nonlinear control methods, predictive current control method gained attention in power electronics community as an attractive alternative to the classical linear control. This is due to many superior characteristics such as intuitive concept, digital controller friendliness, fast dynamic response, and ability to handle constraints and nonlinearities. Due to the absence of modulator, the switching frequency becomes variable with the predictive current control method leading to high current ripples in steady-state. To solve the variable switching frequency problem of classical predictive current control method, this thesis proposes an innovative control method named modulated model predictive current control (M2PCC). The design concepts of classical MTPA control, space vector modulation, and classical predictive current control are integrated to create the suggested control system, preserving the best characteristics from each class. The proposed M2PCC method produces fixed switching frequency operation and low current ripples in steady-state similar to that of classical MTPA control, and fast transient response similar to that of classical
predictive current control method. Moreover, a matrix factorization method is developed for high-accuracy discrete-time models of motor. In contrary to the classical predictive current control method which selects optimal voltage vector of inverter as an actuation, the proposed method selects optimal sector of inverter as an actuation. The two active voltage vectors and a zero-voltage vector in the optimal sector are synthesized by the modulation stage consisting of seven-segment switching sequence.
Through MATLAB simulations on an interior permanent magnet synchronous motor-based EV system, the proposed control method is validated during transient and steady-state conditions. The proposed method is also compared with the classical predictive current control method. The findings show that the proposed control method helps to meet the requirements of EV operation, including torque and speed control and current control with superior power quality.
In simple words, this thesis discusses an innovative control method for EVs to improve
the overall control performance and power conversion efficiency, and enable higher driving
range for the given battery power