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Trace Element Analysis Of Human Dentition From The Elite Meroitic Cemetery At Sedeinga, Sudan To Determine Dietary Consumption And Cultural Behaviors, Tiffany Lee Aug 2018

Trace Element Analysis Of Human Dentition From The Elite Meroitic Cemetery At Sedeinga, Sudan To Determine Dietary Consumption And Cultural Behaviors, Tiffany Lee

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Minimal research has been conducted on the human skeletal remains from this site, and this research is aimed toward adding knowledge of the Nubian culture for the period between the 1st c. AD to the 4th c. AD, particularly focusing on answering the following questions: 1) Was intra- individual variation present in dietary consumption or cultural behaviors based on elements found within an individual's multiple molars after analysis; 2) Was an inter-individual variation apparent, based on developmental age through permanent molars, that indicated a distinction between dietary consumption against all individuals; and 3) Based on known medicinal and cosmetic use …


Serial Murder Mysteries: Revisiting Definitional Issues, Data Challenges, Archaic Theories, And Myths Using Empirical Evidence, Jolene Vincent Aug 2018

Serial Murder Mysteries: Revisiting Definitional Issues, Data Challenges, Archaic Theories, And Myths Using Empirical Evidence, Jolene Vincent

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

While serial killings have been the focus of much scholarly research, the definition of what it means to be a serial killer has been debated by law enforcement agencies and academics for decades. This overall lack of understanding about serial killers and the murders they commit has contributed to the numerous limitations concerning the general knowledge about this unique form of homicide. Furthermore, serial killers have typically been examined using psychological models, psychiatric approaches, or the external drives/motives of the offenders, while the development of a sociological perspective has received less attention. This current research uses arguably the most complete …


Weathering The Storm: Effects Of Storm Periods On Ancient Populations Of Coastal Florida, Brett Parbus Jan 2018

Weathering The Storm: Effects Of Storm Periods On Ancient Populations Of Coastal Florida, Brett Parbus

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Understanding human response to natural disasters is a core problem for environmental archaeologists. Hurricanes are often devastating to coastal populations, and recognizing behavioral change in response to these major storm events provides context for the resilience and adaptability of ancient coastal people. This research project focuses on retrodicting periods of increased storm frequency and intensity for regions of the Florida coast and comparing those storm periods to the existing archaeological record in order to determine if there are correlations between increased storminess and periods of site abandonment and/or changes in subsistence strategy. These potential correlations may aid in our understanding …


Why Is Democracy In Decline: Democratic Backsliding In Venezuela And Turkey, Fatih Bayraktar Jan 2018

Why Is Democracy In Decline: Democratic Backsliding In Venezuela And Turkey, Fatih Bayraktar

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

It has long been argued that the end of the 20th century marked the triumph of liberal democracy. The third wave of democracy has increased the number of democracies in the world unprecedentedly and gave hope to many that democratic revolution is underway. However, in the last decade, this democratization process seems to have halted; there has been decline both in the number and quality of democracies. This thesis proposes an agent-based theory of democratic backsliding. More specifically, it is argued that leaders with undemocratic normative preferences and their ability to mobilize previously persecuted segments of society are the driving …


My Plate, Your Food: Foodways Of International Students In Us' Colleges And Universities, Boniface Noyongoyo Jan 2018

My Plate, Your Food: Foodways Of International Students In Us' Colleges And Universities, Boniface Noyongoyo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Research shows that the world is now more globalized than ever. In the education sector, students' movements have increased from the global South to the North as they look for a better tomorrow. Hence, international students in the US are from almost all countries around the world. The current study examines the changes in the foodways of international students since their arrival in the US The analysis is based on more than 260 surveys and 17 interviews of international students enrolled in US colleges and universities. The results from online self-administered surveys showed that international students' eating habit changes are …


A Psychophysical Approach To Standardizing Texture Compression For Virtual Environments, Jeremy Flynn Jan 2018

A Psychophysical Approach To Standardizing Texture Compression For Virtual Environments, Jeremy Flynn

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Image compression is a technique to reduce overall data size, but its effects on human perception have not been clearly established. The purpose of this effort was to determine the most effective psychophysical method for subjective image quality assessment, and to apply those findings to an objective algorithm. This algorithm was used to identify the minimum level of texture compression noticeable to the human, in order to determine whether compression-induced texture distortion impacted game-play outcomes. Four experiments tested several hypotheses. The first hypothesis evaluated which of three magnitude estimation (ME) methods (absolute ME, absolute ME plus, or ME with a …


Help Me Be Healthy: Perceptions Of Social Support In An Online Weight Loss Program, Brittany Davies Jan 2018

Help Me Be Healthy: Perceptions Of Social Support In An Online Weight Loss Program, Brittany Davies

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As technology changes, so do the ways in which we receive information, provide information and interact with one another. The exchange of social support is increasingly mediated by technology in the realm of health, nutrition, and fitness (Dahl, et al 2015; Wright et al 2011). Commercial weight loss and healthy lifestyle initiatives such as the Beachbody programs incorporate social media and web applications to reach a broader consumer base with individualized programming options. The present study, guided by optimal matching theory and the helper theory principle, employed online participant-observation and in-depth, semi-structured interviews with Beachbody coaches and participants to investigate …


Digital Citizenship Tools For Cause-Based Campaigns: A Broadened Spectrum Of Social Media Engagement And Participation-Scale Methodology, Jennifer Miller Jan 2018

Digital Citizenship Tools For Cause-Based Campaigns: A Broadened Spectrum Of Social Media Engagement And Participation-Scale Methodology, Jennifer Miller

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Digital Citizenship Tools for Cause-Based Campaigns: A Broadened Spectrum of Social Media Engagement and Participation-Scale Methodology develops and applies two new tools for understanding, measuring, and recursively adjusting small to medium-size social media-based philanthropic campaigns to better foster participation and engagement—in other words, democratic digital citizenship. First, a theoretical model is offered broadening current binary conceptions of success and failure or impact of campaigns, situating specific participant actions in social media on a spectrum. Then, from that model, a new methodology is provided to measure participation and engagement generated by campaign posts. Recommendations are also offered for recursively adjusting campaign …


A Bioarchaeological Study Of Osteoarthritis Of Agro-Pastoralists From Mistihalj, Bosnia And Herzegovina: A Lifestyle Set In Time, Zorina Manoni Jan 2018

A Bioarchaeological Study Of Osteoarthritis Of Agro-Pastoralists From Mistihalj, Bosnia And Herzegovina: A Lifestyle Set In Time, Zorina Manoni

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Activity stresses are an important factor in the development, patterning, and severity of osteoarthritis. This bioarchaeological thesis explores the prevalence and patterning of osteoarthritis between individuals buried at a Late Medieval Necropolis and a church Crypt built in the 19th century at the Mistihalj site in Bosnia and Herzegovina to understand the physiological effects of their peasant agro-pastoralist lifestyle. Composite scores of osteoarthritis were generated for visual observations of upper limb joints (shoulder, elbow, and wrist) and lower limb joints (hip, knee, and ankle) of 37 female and 39 male adult (between 20 and 50 or more years of age) …


Investigations Of Possible Cases Of Scurvy In Juveniles From The Kellis 2 Cemetery In The Dakhleh Oasis, Egypt, Through Stable Carbon And Nitrogen Isotopic Analysis Of Multiple Tissues, Georgina Chasse Jan 2018

Investigations Of Possible Cases Of Scurvy In Juveniles From The Kellis 2 Cemetery In The Dakhleh Oasis, Egypt, Through Stable Carbon And Nitrogen Isotopic Analysis Of Multiple Tissues, Georgina Chasse

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Vitamin C deficiency, or scurvy, is a disease that can occur in humans at any age and has been seen throughout time. Scurvy affects the production of connective tissues, including collagen, which leads to the many symptoms of the disease, including fatigue, anemia, bleeding gums and lost teeth, skeletal changes, and even death. The Kellis 2 cemetery in the Dakhleh Oasis, Egypt, in use from approximately AD 50-360, contains the remains of many juveniles who exhibit skeletal indicators of scurvy. Tissue samples from juveniles who did (n=31) and did not (n=117) exhibit skeletal indicators of scurvy were analyzed isotopically, with …


Childhood Experiences And Domestic Violence: The Role That Interpartner Violence Plays In Relationship Functioning And Parenting Behaviors In Adulthood., J'Nelle Stephenson Jan 2018

Childhood Experiences And Domestic Violence: The Role That Interpartner Violence Plays In Relationship Functioning And Parenting Behaviors In Adulthood., J'Nelle Stephenson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

It is estimated that approximately 25% of women and 7.6% of men report experiencing violence from their romantic partner during their lifetime. Additionally, in households where interpartner violence occurs, there are between 3.3 and 10 million children in the United States alone. It is important to understand the cycle of domestic violence that can occur, as it can inform us about expected outcomes across time. This study examined mothers' childhood exposure to their own parents' domestic violence. It was hypothesized that childhood exposure to domestic violence would be related to unhealthy intimate relationships and to the development of maladaptive parenting …


Sleep Disturbances Among Firefighters: The Impact Of Shift Work On Sleep And Cognition, Jeremy Stout Jan 2018

Sleep Disturbances Among Firefighters: The Impact Of Shift Work On Sleep And Cognition, Jeremy Stout

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A comprehensive sleep assessment of 45 firefighters was conducted over 9- days in an effort to determine the impact of their 24 hour work and 48 hour off work schedule on their sleep duration, sleep quality, processing speed, sustained attention, vigilance, and mental health. Chronic patterns of poor sleep are associated with an increased likelihood of performing poorly on tasks that require processing speed and sustained attention/vigilance which could lead to firefighters' suboptimal work performance or an increased risk of injury. Firefighters completed sleep actigraphy, self- report measures, as well as neuropsychological sub-tests at their beginning of their shift and …


Examining Followership Role Orientation, Douglas Monsky Jan 2018

Examining Followership Role Orientation, Douglas Monsky

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study attempts to make steps toward filling significant gaps in the followership literature. The study of followership has often been seen through the lens of leaders' ability to impart change in follower behavior. In doing so, the literature has primarily focused on leader behavior as the agent of change rather than acknowledging followers as active agents in their own behaviors. However, some recent research has shown the emergence of followers as the primary focus, even looking at how their actions can change the way leaders act. This research focuses primarily on followership role orientations as mental models which specify …


Public Speaking Instructors' Perceptions Of College Students Who Stutter, Charlotte Harvey Jan 2018

Public Speaking Instructors' Perceptions Of College Students Who Stutter, Charlotte Harvey

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study queried collegiate level instructors of public speaking asking if there was a gender based difference in their attitudes and beliefs about stuttering. The survey examined for relationships between instructor level of education and: sources of knowledge, knowledge of causation and, amount of knowledge about stuttering. Communication literature searches indicated there were few, if any, studies which specifically addressed the knowledge levels, sources of knowledge and causation information for stuttering. Stuttering occurs in approximately 1% of the worldwide population so it is reasonable to expect that most collegiate level instructors would have individuals who stutter presenting in their classrooms. …


The African Puzzle: A Study Of Democratic Backsliding In Sub Saharan Africa, Ailbhe Rice Jan 2018

The African Puzzle: A Study Of Democratic Backsliding In Sub Saharan Africa, Ailbhe Rice

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The following study examines the future of democratization and the apparent trend towards autocratization within the context of democratic backsliding in Sub-Saharan Africa. Initially, the findings indicate that regionally, backsliding is not acting fundamentally different in Sub-Saharan Africa when compared to other regions. The analysis finds that regime duration and civil conflict are both significant when it comes to the study of democratic backsliding. The variable for the prior military regime's is extremely significant in all of the models and is, therefore, a strong indicator of backsliding in Africa. The chief takeaway from the study is in the variable for …


Revisiting Roadside Attractions: A "Deep Dive" Into Florida's Weeki Wachee Springs, Rebecca Schwandt Jan 2018

Revisiting Roadside Attractions: A "Deep Dive" Into Florida's Weeki Wachee Springs, Rebecca Schwandt

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This digital public history project explores one of the oldest and longest running of Florida's roadside attractions, Weeki Wachee Springs, during the years considered to be the park's heyday, the 1950s through the mid-1970s. With the 75th anniversary of the park approaching in 2022 and preliminary discussions of a new or expanded mermaid museum, there is a growing need to document the experiences of aging former employees and preserve park-related ephemera from that period. For this project six oral histories of former mermaids and former employees have been recorded, transcribed, and made publicly accessible through RICHES, the University of Central …


Leader Psychology And Civil War Behavior, Gary Smith Jan 2018

Leader Psychology And Civil War Behavior, Gary Smith

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

How do the psychological characteristics of world leaders affect civil wars? Multiple studies have investigated how the personalities and beliefs of world leaders affect foreign policy preferences and outcomes. However, this research has yet to be applied to the intrastate context, which is problematic, given the growing importance of civil wars in the conflict-studies literature. This dissertation project utilizes at-a-distance profiling methods to investigate how leaders and their psychological characteristics can affect the likelihood, severity, and duration of civil conflicts. The findings of this research provide further support for the general hypothesis that leaders can, and often do, matter when …


Constructing And Validating An Integrative Economic Model Of Health Care Systems And Health Care Markets: A Comparative Analysis Of Oecd Countries, Jesse Helligso Jan 2018

Constructing And Validating An Integrative Economic Model Of Health Care Systems And Health Care Markets: A Comparative Analysis Of Oecd Countries, Jesse Helligso

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation argues that there are three basic types of health care systems used in industrial nations: free market (private insurance and provision), universal (public insurance and private provision), and socialized (public insurance and provision). It examines the role of market forces (supply and demand) within the health care systems and their effects on health outcomes by constructing an integrative model of health care markets and policies that is lacking within the scientific and academic literature. The results show that, free market systems have decreased access to care, good quality of care, and are economically inefficient resulting in 2.7 years …


The Conditionality Of Vulnerability: Three Analyses Of Risk And Opportunity In Civil Military Relations, Rebecca Schiel Jan 2018

The Conditionality Of Vulnerability: Three Analyses Of Risk And Opportunity In Civil Military Relations, Rebecca Schiel

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Prior research has not established a clear relationship between democracy and insulation from coups d'etat. I contend that the lack of attention paid to the conditional influences of democracy have resulted in these mixed findings. I posit that insulation from coups occurs at higher levels of economic development and judicial institutional strength in democracies. Further, the vulnerability at low levels of both economic development and judicial institutional strength is significantly greater in democracies than in autocracies. Empirical assessments of 165 states for the years 1950-2012 offer strong support for both arguments. Results from these studies first help to reconcile earlier …


Using Hashtags To Disambiguate Aboutness In Social Media Discourse: A Case Study Of #Orlandostrong, Nicholas Dearmas Jan 2018

Using Hashtags To Disambiguate Aboutness In Social Media Discourse: A Case Study Of #Orlandostrong, Nicholas Dearmas

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

While the field of writing studies has studied digital writing as a response to multiple calls for more research on digital forms of writing, research on hashtags has yet to build bridges between different disciplines' approaches to studying the uses and effects of hashtags. This dissertation builds that bridge in its interdisciplinary approach to the study of hashtags by focusing on how hashtags can be fully appreciated at the intersection of the fields of information research, linguistics, rhetoric, ethics, writing studies, new media studies, and discourse studies. Hashtags are writing innovations that perform unique digital functions rhetorically while still hearkening …


A Qualitative Analysis Of Key Concepts In Islam From The Perspective Of Imams, Chandler Dobiyanski Jan 2018

A Qualitative Analysis Of Key Concepts In Islam From The Perspective Of Imams, Chandler Dobiyanski

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The continuous occurrence of terrorist attacks in the name of Islam has shown this ideology and its tenets are at least somewhat connected to jihadists committing attacks in its name. This ideology in terms of 13 themes was investigated by the researcher in 58 sermons outlined in the tables in the appendix. These themes include: brotherhood, death, freedom, human rights, justice and equality, love, oppression, peace and treaty, self-defense, sin, submission, terrorism and truth vs. lies. The researcher used a sample of 10 sermons from U.S.- born imams and 10 sermons from foreign-born imams as the basis for the analysis …


Making An Impression: A Formal Analysis Of The Contextual And Iconographic Characteristics Of Ancient Mexican Ceramic Stamps, Elizabeth Rose Lyon Peabody Jan 2018

Making An Impression: A Formal Analysis Of The Contextual And Iconographic Characteristics Of Ancient Mexican Ceramic Stamps, Elizabeth Rose Lyon Peabody

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Ceramic stamps are a rare, yet widely distributed, artifact class within ancient Mexico. However, there has only been limited scholarly research on these objects and much current research is minimally supported. Depicting a wide range of iconography, including metaphysical, floral, and faunal designs, the function and meaning of these stamps, also known as estampias, pintaderas, and sellos, in ancient Mexican life remain an archaeological mystery. This paper examines the contextual, chronological, and iconographic characteristics of ancient Mexican ceramic stamps as well as the distributional trends of those characteristics. This study is comprised of 83 stamps of varying design that date …


Is Proactive Behavior Always Positive? An Examination Of Leader Reactions Based On Employee Gender And Organizational Crisis, Nicole Carusone Jan 2018

Is Proactive Behavior Always Positive? An Examination Of Leader Reactions Based On Employee Gender And Organizational Crisis, Nicole Carusone

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Organizations are increasingly looking to hire employees who are willing to take initiative and go above and beyond expectations (Campbell, 2000). To that aim, proactive behaviors have been increasingly considered as a potentially important characteristic of today's workers (Campbell, 2000). With workplaces becoming more decentralized and work becoming increasingly innovative and self-directed, organizations require employees who are able and willing to be proactive (Campbell, 2000; Frese & Fay, 2001). Researchers have found many benefits to proactive behavior, including increases in individual performance and innovation (Seibert, Kraimer, & Crant, 2001; Tornau & Frese, 2013). While proactive behavior may have many benefits, …


Modeling The Standard And Poor's 500 Index Via Wave Analytics: Harnessing Lag For Intraday Utilizations, John Cardenas Jan 2018

Modeling The Standard And Poor's 500 Index Via Wave Analytics: Harnessing Lag For Intraday Utilizations, John Cardenas

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Modeling and simulation of financial instruments is accomplished from multiple approaches but most completely from an engineering perspective. Aeronautical engineering yields a wave model created for stock indices in the 1970s. This comprehensive methodology models stock markets as waves for the intention of trading or investing yet has not been applied on time periods smaller than daily or weekly, known as intraday. Stakeholders trading intraday waves need to utilize wave analysis for price capture, analytics, and profitability. It is the purpose of this thesis to present a model to harness wave analytics for the needs of traders seeking price capture …


Analysis Of Remote Tripping Command Injection Attacks In Industrial Control Systems Through Statistical And Machine Learning Methods, Charles Timm Jan 2018

Analysis Of Remote Tripping Command Injection Attacks In Industrial Control Systems Through Statistical And Machine Learning Methods, Charles Timm

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In the past decade, cyber operations have been increasingly utilized to further policy goals of state-sponsored actors to shift the balance of politics and power on a global scale. One of the ways this has been evidenced is through the exploitation of electric grids via cyber means. A remote tripping command injection attack is one of the types of attacks that could have devastating effects on the North American power grid. To better understand these attacks and create detection axioms to both quickly identify and mitigate the effects of a remote tripping command injection attack, a dataset comprised of 128 …


Ethnic Exclusion & Conflict In The Caspian: Comparing Kazakhstan & Azerbaijan, Danny Krikorian Jan 2018

Ethnic Exclusion & Conflict In The Caspian: Comparing Kazakhstan & Azerbaijan, Danny Krikorian

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Political science explains various motives for political violence. This research focuses on a particular kind of motivation: ethnicity. The 20th century has seen many instances of ethnic violence, and this research seeks to understand why it occurs in one place and time and not the other. Traditionally the literature on ethnic violence reflects on economic conditions, regime type, geopolitics and historical context as significant variables. This research posits that Kazakhstan managed to avoid ethnic violence because it is more politically developed. The existence of an accommodative legislative assembly, which assures the rights of ethnic minorities, is an example of Kazakhstan's …


Anti-Capitalism In The Contemporary Age: The Case Of The United Socialist Party Of Venezuela, William Maddens Jan 2018

Anti-Capitalism In The Contemporary Age: The Case Of The United Socialist Party Of Venezuela, William Maddens

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the popularity of anti-capitalist parties around the world has fallen. However, there are still surviving anti-capitalist political parties that survived this fall. In examining these parties, it must be determined whether they have any fresh ideas to overcoming the challenges of transitioning to a socialist society, and if they have any answers to the problems that plagued past attempts at socialism. One such party that has enjoyed much electoral success is the United Socialist Party of Venezuela. When taking a look at party programs, platforms, and statements made by party leaders, …


Assessment Of Information Security Culture In Higher Education, Henry Glaspie Jan 2018

Assessment Of Information Security Culture In Higher Education, Henry Glaspie

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Information security programs are instituted by organizations to provide guidance to their users who handle their data and systems. The main goal of these programs is to protect the organization's information assets through the creation and cultivation of a positive information security culture within the organization. As the collection and use of data expands in all economic sectors, the threat of data breach due to human error increases. Employee's behavior towards information security is influenced by the organizations information security programs and the overall information security culture. This study examines the human factors of an information security program and their …


Revisiting The Postclassic Burials At Lamanai, Belize: A Second Look At The Unique Ventrally Placed, Legs Flexed Burials., Victoria Izzo Jan 2018

Revisiting The Postclassic Burials At Lamanai, Belize: A Second Look At The Unique Ventrally Placed, Legs Flexed Burials., Victoria Izzo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Analysis of unique mortuary patterns is often used to evaluate the social lives of the deceased and also those of the living who placed them there. The Ventrally Placed, Legs Flexed (VPLF) burials at the site of Lamanai in Belize, dating to the Postclassic period (1000 - 1544), have been recorded as a Maya mortuary pattern since the late 1970's. While many researchers have analyzed these skeletal remains, comprehensive and cumulative individual analysis of the VPLF individuals from Lamanai has not been conducted. In this study, I will argue that the VPLF individuals in this study were local to Lamanai, …


Altruistic Punishment Theory And Inter-Group Violence, Clayton Besaw Jan 2018

Altruistic Punishment Theory And Inter-Group Violence, Clayton Besaw

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores the role of altruistic punishment, the act of punishing outsiders perceived to harm members of one's group at a personal cost, in explaining individual motivations to participate in inter-group violence. It first develops a social theory of this type punishment. This theory argues that an egalitarian social logic may be key to understanding motivations of parochial altruism, and that one's social environment may influence thresholds of anger needed to induce punishment behavior. Empirically, it conducts two survey-experimental studies. The first experiment utilizes subject partisan identity in the context of American politics and hypothetical acts of violence to …