MARS
MARS is a repository service of Mason Publishing and the Data and Digital Scholarship Services (DDSS) at the George Mason University Libraries. MARS provides enduring, stable, well-indexed access to a wide range of scholarship from the Mason community, such as Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs), articles, presentations, reports, and creative work. Learn more about publishing, sharing, and preserving research data with the George Mason University Institutional Dataverse, and our other repository services.
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Recent Submissions
Acquisition of English lexical stress by English language learners
(2024-10-30) Alotaibi, Faris
This study examines the production and perception of English lexical stress by English language learners (ELLs) whose native languages are Arabic, Chinese, and Spanish. The choice of these first languages (L1s) is intended to examine the role of a stressless language (Chinese) and languages with different stress patterns than English (Arabic and Spanish). The scope of this study is limited to examining primary stress in English words of four and five syllables. The main aim of the study is to contribute a pedagogical procedure to help the students acquire English stress. The secondary aim is to assess the impact of the L1 on English stress acquisition and to assist English language instructors to teach stress more effectively. The study is designed to start with a pretest to diagnose the students’ proficiency levels vis-à-vis English stress. Next, the researcher creates an intensive training session on the production and perception of English stress. The instruction makes use of a rule illustrated via a three-word mnemonic: Colorado, Philadelphia, and globalization. The study ends with two posttests to measure the efficacy of the training session and the acquisition rate. Outcomes reveal that Arabic, Chinese, and Spanish ELLs all face difficulty with English stress production, but the degree of difficulty varies according to the L1. Stress perception is an easier task for these ELLs. As far as the impact of the L1 is concerned, Chinese ELLs exhibit the most difficulty in producing stress. Nevertheless, they are good at English stress perception. Arabic and Spanish ELLs did not show the same difficulty. Finally, this pedagogical procedure is shown to be effective in improving English stress production and perception.
Flexible Avatar Development Systems and the Facilitation of Gender Euphoria in Games
(2023-11-28) Page, Ollie; Hudson, Seth
The purpose of this study was to explore participants’ experiences with gender euphoria through their avatars in video games. I studied existing literature and examined examples of games with flexible avatar development systems. To gather data, I conducted a 22-question online survey through social media groups and university listservs related to gaming and/or LGBTQ+ communities. The survey asked participants to share their experiences with video game avatars as they relate to feelings of gender euphoria. Several themes were present in the responses (N=113), including feelings of gender euphoria in video games, wanting the removal of arbitrary limitations from avatar development systems, seeking more inclusive customization options, and the desire for avatars that can be altered throughout play. Developers can use avatar development systems to facilitate feelings of gender euphoria in some players by providing inclusive options, providing flexible systems that allow for change after initial creation, and removing unnecessary limitations from their avatar development systems.
Surviving NIBRS: Restoring America’s Unreported Homicides and Exploring the Influences for Law Enforcement’s Declining Cooperation in Crime Reporting
(2023-11-13) Dong, Beidi
FBI adoption of the National Incident Based Reporting System (NIBRS) in 2021 as the mandatory reporting standard for crime data resulted in an unprecedented decline in police reporting to the federal government. Only 57 percent of the nation’s homicides were reported that year. This study obtained more than 6,000 unreported homicides from local and state police agencies using Freedom of Information Act and Open Record Act requests. The study compares FBI data and the study’s augmented dataset for accuracy and completeness using the National Vital Statistics System as a reference. This study also used a 3,134-county regression analysis to explore the socioeconomic factors associated with police decisions to participate, or to decline participation, in the more complex NIBRS program.
Risk Based Prioritization of Organic Chemicals within the Chesapeake Bay Watershed
(2023-11-30) Hawkins, Cheyenne; Glaberman, Scott
Detection of chemicals of emerging concern (CECs) in aquatic systems is raising concern about exposure limits and environmental health. New Approach Methodologies (NAMs), which include a range of molecular and computational techniques, are being developed to help reduce animal-intensive toxicity testing with risk-based prioritization approaches. Certain NAMs are aimed at translating concentration data into risk assessment by comparing target chemical concentrations to a range of available toxicity data, including high-throughput bioassays and whole-organism toxicity endpoints, to prioritize “high risk” chemicals. This thesis applies such a geographic-based chemical prioritization approach to forecast risk in tributaries of the Chesapeake Bay and identify problematic contaminants for further research. Our study encompasses two distinct geographic scales: a micro-scale analysis focusing on a Potomac River tributary, assessing the impact of a local wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) and combined sewer overflows (CSOs); and a macro-scale analysis across multiple Chesapeake Bay tributaries, evaluating urban and agricultural land-use contributions to contaminant risk. In the micro-scale study, we identified several “high risk” chemicals that exceeded toxicity thresholds, especially psychotropic compounds. We found the highest potential risk near the WWTP and CSO outfalls at the Potomac River tributary; however, the risk levels dramatically decreased in the mainstem Potomac River, likely due to its greater flow. In the macro-scale study, we also identified several “high risk” chemicals that exceeded toxicity thresholds. We found greater chemical concentrations, especially hormone and pesticide compounds, with highest potential risk at sites where land-use was predominantly agricultural. These results support the need for further organism-specific and landscape studies to research the biological effects of “high risk” chemicals and risk correlations to agricultural land-use and WWTP sources.
Reclaiming the Past, Demanding Futures: Queer Community in Kern County, California
(2023-11-28) Solis, Delila; Manski, Ben
In this thesis I use a mixed methods approach to investigate the ways in which queer communities in Kern County have survived systems that constrain their life possibilities, including the grip oil and carceral institutions have on Kern County’s economy and spatial imaginary. In contesting the myth of non-survivability in Kern County, I also contest the common perception that queer space and queer community does not exist outside urban spaces. Through archival work and oral histories, I recover some of the lost and suppressed memories of queer survival and queer community. In collaboration with local queer community members, I have co-created the Kern LGBTQ+ Community Archive, which is an online, free to access archive that houses the stories and histories compiled for this study.