PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2024, Allied Health Sciences: Communication Sciences and Disorders

Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) encounter challenges when assessing speech sound disorders (SSDs) in multilingual children, particularly with Arabic-speaking children in majority English-speaking nations, where distinguishing communication differences from disorders is vital. The global increase in Arabic speakers, especially in countries like the United States of America and Canada, underscores the need for culturally sensitive tools to diagnose SSDs effectively across diverse linguistic backgrounds, including Saudi Arabic and English. This dissertation addresses this necessity through two studies, focusing on innovative approaches to characterize the speech productions of Saudi Arabian children. Study one examines functional speech intelligibility, showcasing the psychometric properties of a screening tool and its cultural and linguistic sensitivity to Saudi Arabic dialects. Study two investigates voice onset time (VOT) development in typically developing bilingual children, with a focus on the /t/-/k/ contrast, revealing differences in VOT values and variability in English and Saudi Arabic. Study two also delves into VOT patterns in bilingual children with and without SSDs, shedding light on developmental speech patterns and offering culturally responsive assessment methods for clinicians and researchers. These findings contribute significantly to enhancing the understanding of speech productions and VOT patterns in bilingual children, facilitating improved speech diagnostic assessment and the development of normative data in this understudied bilingual population.

Committee: Jennifer Vannest Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Karla Washington Ph.D. (Committee Member); Reem Khamis-Dakwar Ph.D M.A B.A. (Committee Member); Suzanne Boyce Ph.D. (Committee Member); Victoria McKenna Ph.D. (Committee Member); Amy Pratt Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Health Sciences

Master of Science in Criminal Justice, Youngstown State University, 2022, Department of Criminal Justice and Consumer Sciences

This topic was selected based on the significant policy and enforcement implications that the Covid-19 pandemic has on law enforcement. As in most professions, law enforcement was forced out of necessity to adjust how they operated on a daily basis to decrease exposure to their employees and the public, while still doing their jobs. This thesis explores the question of what impact changing police officer self-initiated vehicle stops had on the use of force encounters by officers in a midsize police department in northeast Ohio. It includes the period of police enforcement actions, specifically self-initiated vehicle stops, during a management directive of limiting encounters to significant violations or known frequent violators. This period was compared to pre-pandemic encounters that were more numerous and not limited or restricted to significant violations or egregious behavior. It examines a relatively new area of research in the field by looking at the impacts and outcomes of the Covid-19 pandemic, responses modifying enforcement practices, and the results of important measures of policing including rates of the use of force by officers. This research utilized public source data compiled by a mid-sized Ohio police department using instances of self-initiated vehicle stops (52,156) as related to the instances of uses of force during those encounters (76). The data studied were from an eleven year period (2012 to 2022) that included the time period of the declared Covid-19 pandemic. The 2022 data were annualized to review what changes occurred after the department resorted back to pre-pandemic practices. This was an exploratory study that used content analysis to determine if the directed reduction in vehicle stop encounters, while reduced in overall numbers to more serious instances and known offenders, resulted in an aggregate decrease or increase of instances of uses of force. The results of this thesis indicate there is a possible impact on the instances (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: John Hazy PhD (Advisor); Gene Donofrio JD (Committee Member); Patricia Wagner JD (Committee Member); Jason Simon MS (Committee Member) Subjects: Criminology

Master of Arts, Miami University, 2020, Economics

I use data from the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police and the Florida Highway Patrol to test for racial bias in traffic stop outcomes and to analyze racial bias training in Pittsburgh. The primary empirical obstacles are selection and omitted variable bias. Selection occurs when officers select into patrol areas or individual interactions based on race, which leads to different racial groups of officers interacting with different distributions of motorists. The omitted variable problem arises from unobservable civilian factors which may be correlated with civilian race and receiving traffic citations or getting arrested after a traffic stop. I use high speeds on the highway and stops made in low visibility conditions to argue for random officer assignment to each interaction in Florida. I utilize fixed effects regressions to capture within-officer civilian race effects and then I compare civilian race effects across officer racial groups to combat omitted variable bias. I find suggestive evidence of widespread bias in both datasets, and that racial bias training in Pittsburgh may have backfired in the realm of traffic stop outcomes.

Committee: Deborah Fletcher (Advisor); Austin Smith (Committee Member); George Davis (Committee Member) Subjects: Criminology; Economics

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2004, Education : Criminal Justice

This dissertation explores a possible use for the repeat phenomenon in examining racial disparities in police motor vehicle stops. Racial profiling, in terms of motor vehicle stops, is one of the more controversial issues in policing today and, subsequently, numerous studies and reports have been issued regarding the distribution of motor vehicle stops across the races. Beyond identifying the existence of racial disparities in motor vehicle stops, explaining why those disparities exist and how they should be addressed are relatively new topics in this growing body of research. The repeat phenomenon is an untapped resource in research on police motor vehicle stops. The repeat phenomenon is the existence of a small proportion of people or places (officers, citizens, places, victims) that account for a much larger proportion of events. In criminal justice and criminology, this phenomenon has been identified and discussed in criminal offending, victimization, locations of criminal events, and, to a lesser degree, officer behavior. The discussion, though, has not been extended to motor vehicle stops. The present study will focus on two aspects of the repeat phenomenon, officers and citizens. The existence of the repeat phenomenon in motor vehicle stops may offer a fresh insight into racial profiling. If repeat officers and citizens do exist in the realm of motor vehicle stops, what is the impact on the racial disparity uncovered in motor vehicle stop research? If a small group of officers is making the majority of motor vehicle stops, and that majority of stops has a high level of racial disparity, focusing future research on those repeat officers may lead to both explanations for and strategies to address racial profiling. In addition, if a small group of citizens accounts for a large proportion of the drivers stopped by the police, focusing future research on those repeat citizens may also lead to explanations for and strategies to address racial profiling. This study (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Dr. Robin Engel (Advisor) Subjects: Sociology, Criminology and Penology

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2012, Economics

Exchange rate regimes and invoicing currency play a crucial role in international macroeconomics due to their importance in the international transmission of monetary policy and the behavior of real exchange rates. In my dissertation, the first essay studies the process of exchange rate regime shifts during sudden stops in a small open economy, using the policy papers by the Bank of Korea to suggest the actual decision-making process within a central bank. The second essay examines the role of invoicing currency in a two-country model with state-dependent pricing(SDP). While recent papers on the financial crisis often model the government as optimally choosing to exit from a fixed exchange rate regime, my first chapter, "Behind the Scenes of Abandoning a Fixed Exchange Rate Regime", uses the Bank of Korea's policy reports during the East Asian crisis to answer whether the Korean central bank optimally chose to abandon or was involuntarily forced to do. The Korean policy reports suggest that there was a discrepancy between the official foreign reserves and foreign reserves usable in defending the Korean currency. Despite a sizable reserve holding, the fixed exchange rate regime was forced to collapse due to the expected depletion of usable foreign reserves. Based on these findings, I suggest a small open economy model in which the credit policy of a central bank to support domestic banks in need of the foreign-currency liquidity, leads to the exhaustion of international reserves and consequent exchange rate regime shift during a sudden stop. This model does well at capturing the regime switching in the Korean crisis and the observed contraction in aggregate variables. In the second chapter, "Invoicing Currency and State-Dependent Pricing", I consider the role of invoicing currency under SDP in the propagation of monetary shocks across countries. While invoicing currency has been extensively studied due to its importance on the international transmission mechansm of m (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Paul Evans (Advisor); William Dupor (Committee Member); Nan Li (Committee Member) Subjects: Economics

Master of Fine Arts, The Ohio State University, 2011, Industrial, Interior Visual Communication Design

Older adults of this age are generally very active and outgoing. However, as people get older, their senses and reflexes diminish, which makes it harder and dangerous for them to drive. This study focuses on the needs and expectations of older adults when using public transportation. I hope to encourage them to use this system; to help their self-confidence, maintain their independence and stay in their own homes and communities. This study took place in Columbus, Ohio. The only public transportation currently present is the COTA bus system (Central Ohio Transit Authority). Also, the targeted older adults are 65 years or older, independent, self-reliant and local citizens of Columbus city. The thesis contains a well-developed literature review following a chain of thoughts that leads to the proposed topic being studied. The study includes questionnaires and interviews conducted by older adults and others; professionals in the fields of gerontology or public transportation system. The end results are a series of common physical and conceptual problems on public transportation with possible some solutions. The final analysis is an improvement to the public bus system and an emphasis on the universal design concepts.

Committee: Paul Nini Pro. (Advisor); Elizabeth Sanders Dr. (Committee Member); Jefferey Haase Pro. (Committee Member) Subjects: Aging; Cognitive Psychology; Design; Transportation

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2010, Linguistics

The study addresses one of the important questions in the field of speech perception: whether listeners process speech categorically as discrete units or continuously attuning to variation within phonemes. Recent research has demonstrated that listeners were able to identify stimuli with sub-phonemic variation in stop voicing contrasts and use this information during lexical processing. The present study seeks further support for this view by building categorical and continuous models based on distribution of individual listeners' responses in a goodness rating task. Lexical items varying along seven-step continua in initial stop voicing or sibilant fricative place are tested and compared against the models. The results show that listeners' perception of sub-phonemic variation is more consistent with the continuous model of speech perception.

Committee: Mary Beckman PhD (Advisor); Shari Speer PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Linguistics