Digital Commons Network^™

Virtual Excavations: Digital Repositories, Data Reuse, And Ethically Accessible Archaeology, Allison Lindsey Densmore

Theses and Dissertations

Archaeological investigations produce massive amounts of data, yet these data are often sequestered by the original researchers or put behind paywalls that restrict access to academic publications. This inaccessibility makes it difficult to justify the destructive nature of archaeology. Open-access digital data management systems such as the Digital Archaeological Record (tDAR) provide archaeologists with new ways to preserve, share, and, most importantly, reuse archaeological data to combat this issue of data sustainability. The goal of this project is to investigate how these digital repositories allow for ethically responsible data access and reuse, thus mitigating the cycle of destruction, hoarding, and …

Reaching Non-Work Destinations: Accessibility And Its Impacts On Travel Behavior, Sai Sun

Theses and Dissertations

As people’s daily activities are diverse, having access to various opportunities is important. However, the existing body of accessibility literature places great emphasis on job accessibility; research on non-work accessibility is limited. To fill the gap, this dissertation examines accessibility to four types of non-work opportunities (healthcare, retail, recreation, and food services) by three transportation modes (automobile, transit, and walking) as well as their impacts on travel in the Milwaukee region. This dissertation examines accessibility disparities across different racial/ethnic groups and income groups in Milwaukee County by comparing weighted average accessibility and overlaying spatial distribution of accessibility with population distributions. …

Acceptability And Feasibility Of Telehealth Delivered Written Exposure Therapy With College Students, Maya Anais Krek

Theses and Dissertations

Full and subthreshold presentations of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are both functionally impairing and chronic. Therefore, development of feasible and acceptable treatments for both is imperative. Written Exposure Therapy (WET), a brief five-session in-person PTSD treatment, has the potential to be successfully administered accessibly via a telehealth format due to minimal therapist contact and short duration of treatment. This study explored the feasibility and acceptability of WET delivered via a telehealth format to college students experiencing posttraumatic stress symptoms.

Participants (N = 4) were college students who were impacted by at least one traumatic event and had associated posttraumatic stress …

Air Cargo: Carriers, Cost, And Competition, Zoe Laulederkind

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines the cost structure of U.S. air carriers participating in the freight transport sector. From 1991 to 2021, events such as the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the global financial crisis, and the COVID-19 pandemic have coincided with various events directly impacting the air freight transport industry. During this 30-year period, air transport has developed and implemented global tracking systems, engaged in labor negotiations, and weathered supply-chain shocks all of which warrant comprehensive evaluation of the U.S. air freight transport industry from the cost perspective. Chapter 1 of this thesis explores existence of natural monopoly and economies of scope among …

The Political Economy Of State Fragility And The Extent To Which It Fuels International Migration Amongst Nigerians., Funmilola Olorunfemi

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examined the political economy of state fragility and the extent to which it fuels international migration amongst Nigerians and adopt a qualitative research method to critically review 15 articles that was identified using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA). The thesis argues that while migration is not a new phenomenon in Nigeria, there is a renewed fervor amongst Nigerians to migrate and that migration amongst Nigerians is in the context of forced mobility. Employing thematic analysis, the thesis demonstrated how state fragility factors which includes economic factors, sociological factors, geographical factors, and unifying factors …

Prior Experiences Of Racial Discrimination Impact Acute Resting-State Connectivity Of The Bnst As A Predictor Of Ptsd In Black Adults, Kevin Petranu

Theses and Dissertations

Altered resting-state activity of the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) – which mediates anxious arousal and threat monitoring – is implicated in the etiology of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Experiences of racial discrimination can also increase one’s risk for developing PTSD by eliciting chronic states of hypervigilance, which impair essential resting-state processes related to fear extinction. Considering the frequency in which Black Americans experience racial discrimination, the current study investigated acute BNST resting-state functional connectivity as a predictor of future PTSD symptoms, as well as the impact of racial discrimination on the BNST as a predictor of PTSD. …

Prior Experiences Of Racial Discrimination Impact Acute Resting-State Connectivity Of The Bnst As A Predictor Of Ptsd In Black Adults, Kevin Petranu

Theses and Dissertations

Altered resting-state activity of the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) – which mediates anxious arousal and threat monitoring – is implicated in the etiology of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Experiences of racial discrimination can also increase one’s risk for developing PTSD by eliciting chronic states of hypervigilance, which impair essential resting-state processes related to fear extinction. Considering the frequency in which Black Americans experience racial discrimination, the current study investigated acute BNST resting-state functional connectivity as a predictor of future PTSD symptoms, as well as the impact of racial discrimination on the BNST as a predictor of PTSD. …

The Evergreen Challenges Of Healing: An Evaluation Of Urban Green Space In Harambee, Kacee Ochalek

Theses and Dissertations

Urban green space initiatives have emerged in low- and middle-income cities as a solution to disinvestment, the production of more positive public health metrics, and a tool of community engagement. While the production of urban greening provides ample room for applause, The City of Milwaukee’s Healing Spaces Initiative model regarding the ongoing construction of green space and the implementation of maintenance creates challenges that perpetuate racist capitalistic notions of the neoliberal project. This paper presents reports from participant observation, document analysis, and 17 qualitative interviews with representatives of the City of Milwaukee, community partners, garden leaders, and residents. The data …

Differentiating Human From Nonhuman Bone: Insights From A Medical Examiner’S Collection, Kenosha, Wisconsin, Jordan L. Fourshee

Theses and Dissertations

Forensic anthropologists who work in medical examiner’s offices or similar contexts frequently need to differentiate nonhuman from human skeletal or partially decomposed remains. If we, forensic anthropologists, were more aware of which nonhuman bones were most common in such situations, we might be able to improve our training programs. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Kenosha County, southwest Wisconsin, accumulated over 1,940 nonhuman bones over a period of several years, most likely primarily between 2000 and 2005. These are the focus of this thesis, which presents a quantitative analysis of the most frequently encountered taxa and elements. The …

Policy Uncertainty, Tariff Rate, Monetary Policy And Income Inequality: An Asymmetric Analysis, Mehrnoosh Hasanzade

Theses and Dissertations

This study offers a contribution to the income inequality literature within the traditional Kuznets model and explores the relationship between income inequality and a set of macroeconomic variables such as policy uncertainty, tariff rate, and monetary policy. By implementing a Nonlinear Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model, I aim to identify the possible nonlinear effects of policy uncertainty, tariff rate -as a measure of trade openness-, and monetary policy on income inequality in United States and its 50 states and District of Columbia. The advantage of choosing this methodology is that it helps researchers to explain both long run relationships and …

Exploration Of Older Adults’ Travel Behavior And Their Transportation Barriers, Hamideh Moayyed

Theses and Dissertations

Both the number of older adults and their proportion of the population are increasing rapidly in the United States. By 2040, about 20.7% of the U.S. population will be 65 and older (Harrison & Ragland, 2003a). These dramatic changes in the composition of the population will bring new challenges to the provision of transportation services. This is because the travel patterns and needs of older adults are likely to become more complicated. A growing number of people will find it increasingly difficult to meet their transportation needs. As the life expectancy of older adults is likely to continue to increase, …

The Caretaking Of Eve Online: Institutional Ethics And Enactments At Ccp Games, Joshua William Rivers

Theses and Dissertations

This ethnography examines the Icelandic video game developer CCP Games, the makers of EVE Online—a massively-multiplayer online game (MMO) that takes place in a star cluster far, far away. Through my exploration of CCP Games as an institution over the span of fourteen months, I highlight how corporations are culturally-situated, enacted entities. Simultaneously, I demonstrate that these culturally-located actors who serve as the architects of our digital infrastructures undertake such efforts from their situated vantage points, thereby embedding particular ethical commitments into the digital landscapes they craft and within which we live our social lives. Created with the intent to …

Function And Aesthetic Value: An Analysis Of The Milwaukee Public Museum's Thai Royal Silver Collection, Aislinn Sanders

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis analyzes 45 objects from the Thai Royal Silver collection currently housed at the Milwaukee Public Museum (MPM). Of these, 41 were donated by a single donor, Dr. Louis Schapiro, who collected the objects during his time working as Medical Advisor for the King of Siam in 1931-1932. Following his death, his son Mark held onto the objects until 1969, when they became a part of the MPM’s collection. The chosen objects include boxes, bowls, and other types of vessels. Through researching this collection, the following questions guided the direction for this thesis: How did the silver industry begin …

Essay In Bayesian Econometrics, Loren P. Wagner

Theses and Dissertations

Bayesian Econometrics is not as popular as the more common frequentists methods. However, there are problems that Bayesian methods can handle that are not amenable to frequentists methods. The essays to follow show two such applications where Bayesian methods offer solutions to problems posed in widely different areas of economics. In the first essay, the predictive posterior distribution is used to calculate a number of economic quantities that often require extensive work arounds using frequentist methods. In the second essay, it is shown that Bayesian estimation techniques can handle situations wherein an independent variable exhibits no variability, a situation that …

A Course In Legal English And U.S. Law For Undergraduate Japanese Law Students, Leonard George Leverson

Theses and Dissertations

In this paper, I discuss the design of a Legal English and U.S. Law course for undergraduate Japanese law students visiting for a semester at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s English Language Academy. I review how I went about analyzing the students’ needs and wants and the factors affecting their motivation. I explain my philosophy of second language teaching, in particular, that second language teaching should contain an element of play. I describe how I sought to introduce a play element in the course through such techniques as watching law-related movies, role play activities, Kahoot quizzes, and pronunciation drills. Course design …

The Case Of The Benin Bronzes: Exploring Repatriation In U.S. Museums, Kendra Voelz

Theses and Dissertations

The Benin Bronzes are a grouping of an estimated 10,000 works made from brass, ivory, wood, clay, as well as other materials. These objects originated from the royal palace in Benin City, located in present day Nigeria in Africa. Within the last five years, beginning in 2017, discussions surrounding the repatriation of these artifacts from museums around the world have been reignited to a high degree where institutions are actively working towards researching and, in increasing numbers, repatriating the material to Nigeria. Through video and written interviews this thesis examines the thoughts and opinions of 11 professionals in museums across …

Testing The Psychology Of Working Theory Among Economically Marginalized Workers, Willy Anthony Diaz Tapia

Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

TESTING THE PSYCHOLOGY OF WORKING THEORY AMONG ECONOMICALLY MARGINALIZED WORKERS

byWilly Anthony Diaz Tapia The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2022 Under the Supervision of Professor Kelsey Autin In 2018, the U.S. Census Bureau estimated that approximately 39.7 million U.S. Americans lived in poverty of which 6.9 million were considered the working poor. People from economically marginalized communities experience significant challenges in many areas of life and work is no exception; yet their work lives continue to be underrepresented in vocational literature. The Psychology of Working Theory (PWT) is one of the first vocational theories developed explicitly to better understand and …

A Community-Engaged Narrative Inquiry Photovoice Project Examining The Health-Impacting Experiences Of Older Adult Russian And Spanish-Speaking Immigrants In Southeastern Wisconsin, United States., Maren Hawkins

Theses and Dissertations

Background: Among the nearly 10 million older adult immigrants in the United States, most come from Mexico and speak Spanish. Moreover, in addition to the hundreds of thousands of Russian-speaking immigrants from the Former Soviet Union already residing in the United States, the current war in Ukraine is fueling mass emigration of Ukrainian and Russian-speakers from Ukraine. Thus, in this study we sought to examine the health-impacting experiences of older adult Russian and Spanish-speaking immigrants in Southeastern Wisconsin. Design & Methods: This was a Community-Engaged Participatory Narrative Inquiry Photovoice Project and applied the Older Adult Immigrant Adapted Model for Health …

Workplace Stressors And Withdrawal Intentions In Law Enforcement: The Role Of Living A Calling, Kristin Weber

Theses and Dissertations

Working in law enforcement is considered a dangerous and challenging profession. Not only do law enforcement officers experience stress related to job tasks but they experience additional job stress related to organizational processes and procedures. Ongoing exposure to job stress can lead to low job satisfaction and high job turnover (Biggs, Brough & Barbour, 2014). However, the job turnover for those in law enforcement is only approximately ten percent. To date, there has been no research examining this discrepancy or predictors of low withdrawal intentions in law enforcement. This study looks to examine the relationship between living a calling, job …

Effects Of Residual Arousal And Cognitive Appraisal On Psychophysiological Reactivity To Stress, Hanna Johnson

Theses and Dissertations

Generalized arousal can amplify emotional responses to a range of target stimuli, but it is not yet known whether perceiver characteristics moderate the effects of arousal as target characteristics do. This study investigated the effects of residual arousal from exercise on psychological and physiological reactivity to an active coping task, when individual appraisals of the task differed. Participants who endorsed either a positive or negative attitude toward job interviews underwent either a highly or minimally arousing exercise task, followed by a mock job interview, to which self-reported and cardiovascular responses were assessed. Using the Biopsychosocial Model of Challenge and Threat …

Utilizing Structural Equation Modeling To Examine Factors Impacting Health-Related Quality Of Life For Emerging Adults With Chronic Pain As They Transition To Adulthood, Amy Coral Lang

Theses and Dissertations

Approximately 5% to 30% of adolescents and emerging adults are living with chronic pain as they navigate the transition from pediatric- to adult-focused health care. However, there is a paucity of research investigating the health care transition experience for emerging adults with chronic pain. The current study aimed to utilize structural equation modeling in a sample of community-recruited emerging adults with chronic pain to: 1) assess a hypothesized measurement model and validate pertinent measures in this understudied population; and 2) assess a hypothesized structural model based in the Individual and Family Self-Management Theory. Findings provide preliminary validation of measures of …

The Development Of The Degrees Of Freedom Scale, Darius Wright

Theses and Dissertations

The Theory of Work Adjustment (TWA) is a person-environment fit model used to predict turnover intention, determined by the satisfaction of one’s values being reinforced at work. A unique component of this framework looks at how one responds when work values are not being met: either by trying to change the outcome with the workplace or adjust oneself to the outcome. What is unknown however, are the factors that influence the different responses. There is evidence to suggest that there are objective external factors that might play a role in these decisions. This study aimed to capture these factors using …

The Roadmap To Iraq: How 9/11 Facilitated The 2003 Invasion, Michael Loren Shumway

Theses and Dissertations

The attacks of 11 September 2001 not only resulted in retaliatory attacks upon the nation of Afghanistan for its harboring of the terror cell al Qaeda but also for the later U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. Although initial intelligence connected the terrorist group al Qaeda to the attacks, Bush’s administration officials began assembling intelligence on Iraq’s weapons capabilities and its possession of Weapons of Mass Destruction. In this 2002 National Security Strategy, Bush announced his administration’s position that the United States would react pre-emptively to threats against the United States or its global interests. This pre-emptive position opened the …

Impact Of Teacher Cognition On The Implementation Of Social- Emotional Learning Practices For El Students, Madeline Bliske

Theses and Dissertations

There is a well-established achievement and graduation rate gap between English Learner (EL) students and their monolingual English-speaking peers (U.S. Department of Education, 2020). The current study focuses on teacher cognition and characteristics that may impact the likelihood that they will implement culturally and linguistically sustaining (CLS) social-emotional learning (SEL) practices for EL students within their classroom. Specifically, I descriptively analyze whether personal, professional, or school characteristics are associated with teachers’ perception of EL students SEL competencies or implementation of CLS SEL practices. Utilizing the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), I evaluate whether teacher cognition (i.e., behavioral attitudes, subjective norms, …

Rural Masculinities In American Scripted Television Series Of The 2010s, Paul Doro

Theses and Dissertations

The 2010s featured a significant increase in the representation of rural masculinity on television. Much of the increase can be attributed to unscripted programming. Reality series have received considerable attention from scholars, particularly in regard to their representation of stereotypes. This dissertation examines the representation of masculinities in three scripted television series that aired during the 2010s and are set in rural America. The series provide perspectives on rural masculinities that can be placed in conversation with discourses on reality series set in rural environments. Justified, Rectify, and Outsiders depict male characters that veer away from stereotypes and are difficult …

Masculinity And Men’S Health Attitudes Toward Consideration Of Weight-Loss Surgery, Karaline Fusco

Theses and Dissertations

The rise in obesity across the United States has led to greater educational outreach, considerable research, and medical interventions aimed at decreasing the rate of obesity-related health diseases. But are these interventions reaching everyone? Despite men and women having equivalent rates of obesity, only 20% of weight-loss surgery patients are men. While men have an average life expectancy that is 5 years less than women and are twice as likely than women to have heart disease, men also underutilize healthcare services. Given these factors, this research explored men’s health beliefs, conformity to male norms, and receptivity to weight-loss surgery. This …

The Impact Of Emotional Cues On Response Inhibition In Obsessive-Compulsive Symptoms, Ashleigh M. Harvey

Theses and Dissertations

Response inhibition (RI; the ability to inhibit a pre-potent response) has been proposed as a cognitive vulnerability underlying obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). However, extant mixed findings about this purported relationship have raised questions of how robust this relationship might be, and whether other contextual factors may not be fully captured by existing study methodologies. Given rates of comorbid depression and real-world clinical observations of the effects of dysphoric mood on OCD, the present study examined the associations between RI, OCD, and dysphoric mood by utilizing an analogue sample and a cross-sectional, within-subjects design. Participants completed the stop-signal and go/no-go tasks to …

Assessing Pediatric Chronic Pain Treatment Engagement: Development And Initial Validation Of The Pediatric Pain Perceived Behavioral Control Measure, Nina Linneman

Theses and Dissertations

Pediatric chronic pain significantly impacts functioning across all domains of life and often carries forward into adulthood. Chronic pain is often complex to treat and pediatric non-adherence to treatment recommendations has been indicated to be upwards of 55%. Using the Theory of Planned Behavior as a framework, the aim of the present study was to develop and validate two measures of perceived behavioral control for chronic pain treatment recommendations with a clinical adolescent patient sample (patient and parent proxy versions). The measures underwent development, data from a pediatric chronic pain clinical sample were collected, and an exploratory factor analysis was …

Men, Athletic Identity, Masculinity, And Alcohol: An Examination Of Health Risk Patterns In Male Collegiate Athletes, Travis Love

Theses and Dissertations

The aim of study was to examine the health risk behaviors (alcohol use /abuse) of male student athletes and the relationship these behaviors have to their athletic identity and conformity to masculine norms. Alcohol usage has been identified as a significant health risk behavior exhibited by male collegiate athletes and the study sought to examine the correlations with and athletic identity and conformity to masculine norms using the Athletic Identity Measurement Scale (AIMS), Conformity to Masculine Norms Inventory (CMNI-46), and the AUDIT-C. Correlation analyses and multiple regression analyses were utilized to statistically explore the relationship between the three variables. Results …

Essays On Measuring Credit And Property Prices Gaps, Nam Nguyen Tam Hoai

Theses and Dissertations

My dissertation studies credit expansion and its effect on house prices and financial stability. In the first chapter, I examine the idea that house prices and credit to households are jointly determined, affecting each other in the short and long run. I decompose the movements of the two variables of interest into permanent long-run and transitory short-run components using an unobserved components vector autoregressive model. The dynamic model shows findings to support the hypothesis that a short-run positive shock to house prices is associated with an increase in household credit above its long-run trend. Furthermore, by utilizing additional information generated …