Ideology and folksong re-creation in the home-recorded repertoire of W. D. Collins

Collins, Melinda S Indiana University 2007 해외박사(DDOD)

Folklorists have for some time pointed to a lack of scholarly attention to vernacular recordings, but few full-length studies of home recordings have yet been undertaken. My purpose in writing this dissertation is to address this lack by analyzing and interpreting five vernacular recordings of songs, ballads, stories, prayer and preaching made between 1950 and 1976 by W.D. Collins (1893-1976), a stockman, community song leader, square dance caller, cowboy, and Baptist preacher in Missouri, Wyoming, and Oklahoma. The approach I take for this dissertation is to record interviews with 16 children, grandchildren, and other family members of W.D. Collins, focusing on narratives about performance, ideology, and uses of particular music performances and home recordings. An analysis of the Collins repertoire in comparison to other regional song repertoires in print and an examination of the Collins home recordings in light of the current interviews with his family members reveals a man both ordinary and extraordinary, and suggests the performer's own social outlook, political stance, and religious convictions, and it provides evidence of the performer's manipulation of traditional materials to reflect his personality and serve his ideology. The study affords a glimpse into one family's practice of mediated traditional expression, addressing its multiple functions over time, both for the performer and audience, and for pedagogical applications.

Performance Variations Across Response Formats on Reading Comprehension Assessments

Collins, Alyson A Vanderbilt University 2015 해외박사(DDOD)

Everyday in school students are required to read and comprehend texts across the curriculum. Whether they are in math, science, social studies, or language arts classes, a student's academic success is largely dependent on their ability to understand various types of text. Because understanding text is a foundational skill students must utilize across subject areas, a student's academic achievement is oftentimes associated with his or her performance on a reading comprehension test. Reading comprehension, however, is a complex, multidimensional construct, making it a particularly difficult skill to measure (Kintsch & Kintsch, 2005; Perfetti, Landi, & Oakhill, 2007). Many recognize reading comprehension is multi-faceted, and successful understanding of text is oftentimes dependent upon a child's proficiency in underlying components of this process (e.g., Kintsch & Kintsch, 2005; Perfetti et al., 2007). Therefore, strengths in skills such as decoding, word reading, oral language, working memory, knowledge, and self-monitoring may bolster or inhibit a child's ability to construct a mental representation of a text (Johnston, Barnes, & Desrochers, 2008; Kintsch & Kintsch, 2005; Nation, 2007; Perfetti et al., 2007). The interdependence amongst these underlying cognitive processes, however, makes the measurement of reading comprehension complicated (Keenan, 2013; Pearson & Hamm, 2005), and differences in child skills potentially lead to inconsistencies in student outcomes across tests (Collins, Gilbert, et al., 2014; Keenan, 2013; Keenan & Meenan, 2014). Consequently, many researchers lack consensus regarding what methods are best for measuring reading comprehension, and many questions remain regarding the validity of commonly utilized assessments (e.g., Campbell, 2005; Nation & Snowling, 1997). Much of the disagreement among researchers stems from recent studies suggesting scores obtained on reading comprehension tests may actually represent a reader's level of proficiency in an underlying skill (e.g., decoding, oral language) instead of a true reflection of his or her understanding of the text (e.g., Cutting & Scarborough, 2006; Keenan, Betjemann, & Olson, 2008). Concerns regarding the role child skills play in reading comprehension have intensified as more evidence has emerged documenting how a certain child skill (e.g., decoding) may account for more of the variance on one test, but the same child skill may be less critical for success on a comparable assessment (e.g., Cutting & Scarborough, 2006; Keenan et al., 2008; Nation & Snowling, 1997). Therefore, some argue many widely-used reading comprehension assessments are less closely related to the primary construct they were designed to measure (Collins, Gilbert, et al., 2014; Keenan, 2013; Keenan & Meenan, 2014; Nation & Snowling, 1997). To further complicate this rising dissatisfaction among researchers for how reading comprehension is measured, recent studies show that certain assessment dimensions (e.g., response format, text length) may be another source of variance among tests over and above the contribution of child skills (e.g., Collins, Lindstrom, & Compton, 2014; Keenan, 2013; Keenan & Meenan, 2014). Because many comprehension tests vary in response format, text length, genre structure, and administration procedures, some believe inconsistencies in student performance may stem from these differences. Too few studies, however, have isolated the effects of these assessment dimensions on reading comprehension, and even fewer have examined the relationship between the two sets of variables (i.e., assessment dimensions and child skills) purported to lead to variations in reading comprehension outcomes (Best, Floyd, & Mcnamara, 2008; Francis, Fletcher, Catts, & Tomblin, 2005; Keenan et al., 2008). Understanding factors that contribute to variations in student performance across comprehension assessments is important because findings of recent studies suggest differences among test dimensions and individual child skills may potentially lead to some students being identified as a student with a reading difficulty (RD) on one reading comprehension measure, but not another (Collins, Gilbert, et al., 2014; Francis et al., 2005; Keenan, 2013; Keenan & Meenan, 2014). Furthermore, if different reading comprehension tests lead to contradictory decisions in the identification of students with RD, outcomes on these assessments may ultimately introduce discrepancies among investigations examining the efficacy of comprehension interventions. Given the lingering questions about the validity of reading comprehension tests and the burgeoning dissatisfaction with the inconsistencies in performance across currently available assessments, more rigorous, high-quality experiments are needed to understand how assessment dimensions and child skills may relate to outcomes on these measures (Francis et al., 2005; Keenan, 2013; Pearson & Hamm, 2005).

An elaboration and analysis of two policy implementation frameworks to better understand Project Exile (Virginia)

Collins, Matthew Lloyd Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State Universit 2002 해외박사(DDOD)

In 1997, on average every 40 to 45 hours criminals either shot or killed a victim in the City of Richmond, Virginia. This resulted in 122 firearm homicides in that year alone. This gun-related violent crime epidemic so terrorized law-abiding citizens that many of them became hostages in their own homes. In response to this horrific social problem, Project Exile was developed in late 1997. Project Exile is a multi-level (federal, state, and local) law enforcement effort aimed at the amelioration of Richmond's high percapita rate of gun violence and gun homicide. Through the Richmond U.S. Attorney's Office, Project Exile takes advantage of stiffer bond rules and sentencing guidelines in federal court, where all cases involving felons with guns, guns and drugs, and guns and domestic violence are prosecuted. Although Project Exile has received extensive television and print media coverage, it has not caught the attention of the academic world. This dissertation begins to fill this research gap by combining Kingdon's (1995) Multiple Streams model with Sabatier's (1999) Advocacy Coalition Framework to develop a “Specific Collins Classification and Elaboration Model” and a “Generic Collins Classification and Elaboration Model” that will be used to analyze the formation and implementation of Project Exile. The three purposes of this research will be: (1) To elaborate and analyze Kingdon's and Sabatier's frameworks as a means for understanding Project Exile. (2) To draw on these two frameworks to create both Specific and Generic new “Collins Models” to assist in furthering a deeper understanding of this case study as well as similar policy subsystems. (3) To explain the genesis and development of Project Exile. The most salient result of this research is that it shows the disparate ways in which variables, taken from the work of Kingdon, Sabatier, and the Project Exile case, fit in Schroeder's (2001) operationalization of the Political Economic framework. In addition, this research shows how both Kingdon and Sabatier compensate for the respective limitations of the other when the two of them are combined into one model.

The state of North Korean security : perceptions and its limitations to tension reduction

Collins, Aaron Kim Graduate School of International Studies, Yonsei U 2002 국내석사

The purpose of this study is to show the limitations of an engagement policy towards North Korea in realizing significant military tension reductions on the Korean peninsula. Tension reduction between nation-states is defined as the implementation of concrete measures such that the threats to the security of the parties concerned are lessened and the potential for conflict due to miscalculation and/or misunderstanding is mitigated. Military tension reduction measures among nation-states are comprised of reduction, reorganization, and relocation of military troops and weapons systems. Confidence-building measures (CBMs) are the preceding steps that facilitate the realization tension reduction. The implementation of CBMs do not directly translate into tension reduction. However, CBMs are necessary to facilitate tension reduction. North Korea's security is structured such that implementing concrete tension reduction measures threatens Kim Jong Il's power in North Korea and the survival of the regime that has ruled the northern portion of the peninsula for over 50 years. It is important to conduct an in-depth analysis of the perceptions of what seems to be changes toward "New Thinking" in North Korea in order to understand the realities of North Korean strategy. Tactical modifications in North Korean behavior towards the international community are part of its strategy to elicit economic concessions in order to support the security structure. The goals of regime survival and peninsula unification under Kim Jong Il remain constant regardless of North Koreas overt behavior vis-a-vis the ROK, the U.S., and other members of the global community. This thesis argues that as long as North Korea maintains its present security structure, significant security tension reduction measures that will mitigate the potential for conflict to erupt again on the Korean peninsula cannot be implemented. With this knowledge, policymakers must espouse a clear perspective on what North Korea is and draft policies that are based upon the realities of the DPRK.

Essays on financial management and low income households

Collins, Daryl New York University 2011 해외박사(DDOD)

Financial management is increasingly known to be a key factor in the lives of poor households, but determining how to design financial services that encourage effective financial management remains a challenge. This dissertation provides insights using a unique set of high frequency household level panel data to contribute to debates on financial behavior and the poor. The first essay of this dissertation, "Policies to shift the savings practices of the poor," provides evidence that lowering banking transaction costs may not be the boon to the poor that we had hoped, throwing doubt on the efficacy of many financial-inclusion policies that strive to make banking services cheaper and more accessible. The second essay, "Testing Temptation," motivates broader financial inclusion for the poor by showing that when households have access to only the most basic of financial instruments, it is much more difficult to contain temptation than for those who have access to more sophisticated and varied financial services. The final essay, "Going with the flow," explores ways to strengthen one-time surveys of financial behavior by testing the consistency of results from these types of surveys against that of panel survey data.

High speed bipolar latch design for large scale integration

Collins, Thomas E., III University of California, Santa Barbara 2007 해외박사(DDOD)

This dissertation presents the analysis and design of high-speed bipolar D-Flip-Flops. A conventional current mode logic (CML) static frequency divider (SFD) design in a high-speed InP process is shown. The SFD was the fastest CML divider at the time of publication. A new flip-flop topology more suitable for large scale circuits is presented and compared with a standard CML flip-flop. The new flip-flop incorporates a translinear current amplifier (also known as a "Gilbert Gain Cell") internally to reduce the load presented by the flip-flop to the clock network. The combined flip-flop and clock network uses less current while performing at a similar rate of speed compared with the standard CML flip-flop. This is demonstrated in a SiGe process and results show an improvement in the power-delay product of approximately 14%, running at top speed. The new flip-flop is simulated in a Pseudo Random Bit Stream (PRBS) generator and compares favorably to a PRBS generator using the conventional CML flip-flop.

A combinatorial approach to the development of composition-microstructure-property relationships in titanium alloys using directed laser deposition

Collins, Peter C The Ohio State University 2004 해외박사(DDOD)

The Laser Engineered Net Shaping (LENS(TM)) system, a type of directed laser manufacturing, has been used to create compositionally graded materials. Using elemental blends, it is possible to quickly vary composition, thus allowing fundamental aspects of phase transformations and microstructural development for particular alloy systems to be explored. In this work, it is shown that the use of elemental blends has been refined, such that bulk homogeneous specimens can be produced. When tested, the mechanical properties are equivalent to conventionally prepared specimens. Additionally, when elemental blends are used in LENS(TM) process, it is possible to deposit compositionally graded materials. In addition to the increase in design flexibility that such compositionally graded, net shape, unitized structures offer, they also afford the capability to rapidly explore composition-microstructure-property relationships in a variety of alloy systems. This research effort focuses on the titanium alloy system. Several composition gradients based on different classes of alloys (designated alpha, alpha + beta, and beta alloys) have been produced with the LENS(TM). Once deposited, such composition gradients have been exploited in two ways. Firstly, binary gradients (based on the Ti-xV and Ti-xMo systems) have been heat treated, allowing the relationships between thermal histories and microstructural features (i.e. phase composition and volume fraction) to be explored. Neural networks have been used to aid in the interpretation of strengthening mechanisms in these binary titanium alloy systems. Secondly, digitized steps in composition have been achieved in the Ti-xAl-yV system. Thus, alloy compositions in the neighborhood of Ti-6Al-4V, the most widely used titanium alloy, have been explored. The results of this have allowed for the investigation of composition-microstructure-property relationships in Ti-6-4 based systems.

Perfecting a Woman's Life : Methodist rhetoric and politics in "The Account of Hester Ann Rogers"

Collins, Vicki Tolar Auburn Univ. 1993 국내박사

The revolt of the saints: Popular memory, urban renewal and national heritage in the twilight of Brazilian "racial democracy"

Collins, John Francis University of Michigan 2003 해외박사(DDOD)

This dissertation examines the production of histories and racial identities around the 1967–present making of a cultural heritage center in Salvador, Brazil's Pelourinho (“Pillory”) neighborhood. The Pelourinho—the former center of the Portuguese South Atlantic, a UNESCO heritage zone, an infamous red light zone until 1992, and one of Brazil's most resonant symbols of its African heritage—stands as a national historic place not because of its role in important events, but because of its salience in the stories of interracial desire at the heart of the Brazilian nation and a national people. At a moment of significant challenges to the narratives of sensuous miscegenation so constitutive of the Brazilian nation, the Pelourinho and its population have been transformed into a mnemonic device and a sacred ground for national origins. This alignment of unstable identities and the unruly inhabitants on whom they depend requires enormous effort that I chart through ethnographic and archival research with both residents and state institutions. Central to the definition of Brazilianness in the Pelourinho has been the collection of ethnographic data that allows disparate habits to be organized into recognizable national traits. Even as a majority of residents have been removed, the scientific study of this excised population has produced a state archive construed as representative of Afro-Brazilians' intimate habits and life stories. Such production of knowledge about a populace that serves as symbolic ancestors to the nation girds state attempts to chart its narratives of order and progress, to police the racialized and gendered boundaries of community belonging, and to demonstrate its purported responsiveness to Afro-Brazilian citizens. The concurrent monumentalization and pathologization produce a remarkable state of intimacy that inspires those residents able to remain in the neighborhood. Beatified as national possessions, these “properly historical subjects” participate actively in categorizations of people and the production of history in a nation where they come to exercise enormous influence and help reveal the limits of state power. Their aspirations, couched in the languages of Pentecostalism, community morality, social science, and folklore, promise to expand existing definitions of the moral, the historical, and the human.

Interface macrostructures: Content representations for interactive information spaces

Collins, Mary Linn Marks Columbia University Teachers College 2002 해외박사(DDOD)

Designing large information spaces consisting of information in multiple media requires solving the problem of how to design content representations that help users navigate through information. This problem can be described as the problem of designing compressed forms that provide global conceptual information. Researchers in discourse studies call such forms macrostructures (Kintsch and van Dijk, 1978; van Dijk, 1980, 1997; van Dijk and Kintsch, 1983). In the context of linear media, macrostructures serve as headings, sub-headings, and topic sentences. In the context of interactive media, they function not only as headings, sub-headings, and topic sentences in content, but also as links, menus, overviews, previews, annotations, and other content representations on the interface. Solutions to the problem of how to design interface macrostructures can be derived from research in discourse analysis and structure, from research in usability and human-computer interaction, and from the arts. This dissertation describes a framework for designing interface macrostructures and presents a taxonomy of interface macrostructures that encompasses a range of designs, derived from these diverse sources.