Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Urban Development Of A City In Niger Delta Region Of Nigeria, Chinyere Emmanuel Igwe

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The issue of indiscriminate urban expansion is not uncommon in Africa. It has created haphazard, unplanned, and unapproved development that negatively affected urban planning for cities in the Niger Delta Region in Nigeria. Using Stone's urban regime theory, the purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore from the perspective of developers, associations, and government agencies (referred to as stakeholders), the roots causes of indiscriminate urban development and their activities in the process in the Niger Delta Region. Data were collected through semi structured telephone interviews with 10 participants who had at least 5 years experience working in public and …

Potential Solar Consumers' Understanding Of Energy Policy Development In Hawai‘I, Kristin Li Mcgill

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Hawai‘i has implemented renewable energy goals that assume continued investments by solar consumers who seem unaware of their role in the policy's success. Without the renewable resource generation that will come from these investments, the state will be unable to achieve its energy mandate. Using Sabatier and Jenkins-Smith's advocacy coalition framework and Ajzen's theory of planned behavior as the foundation, the purpose of this study was to better understand the perspectives of potential solar consumers on the Island of O‘ahu regarding the state's renewable portfolio standards, their level of knowledge regarding consumer impact on this policy, and their perceptions of …

Sustainable Development Economy: Macroeconomic Policy And Microeconomic Impact Of Public Private Partnerships, Richard Berkshire

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The impact of public private partnership (PPP) on Dallas, Texas economic development activities is debated through many forms of academic studies. The purpose of this study was to bridge the research gap in PPP impact on sustainable economic development from the perspectives of PPP practitioners. The central research question focused on the PPP executives' perspective on the evaluation of PPP programs within a 5-year period (2005 - 2010) in Dallas, Texas. The theoretical framework of this study was based on the policy feedback theory. A qualitative case study design was the case study approach and purposeful sampling interviews were the …

Knowledge Transfer Strategy Implementation In Contract Organizations, Delano Clyde Hudson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Despite economic perils of government shutdowns, foreclosures, bankruptcies, and employee layoffs, some contract leaders consistently fail to implement knowledge transfer strategies that could improve production and profitability and maintain operational readiness when employees transition in and out of the organization. The conceptual framework for this descriptive research study was Nonaka and Takeuchi's socialization, externalization, combination, and internalization model for knowledge creation. A purposive sample of 20 leaders from 2 contract organizations within the south central United States with at least 10 years of experience in contracting were interviewed. Member checking was used for reliability of the synthesized interviews, and triangulation …

Cybersecurity Policy Development At The State Level: A Case Study Of Middle Tennessee, Daniel Leslie Scherr

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Cybersecurity is a growing threat not only to nations, critical infrastructure, and major entities, but also to smaller organizations and individuals. The growing number of successful attacks on all manner of U.S. targets highlights the need for effective and comprehensive policy from the local to federal level, though most research focuses on federal policy issues, not state issues. The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of the decision-making process within the current cybersecurity policy environment in a southern state of the United States. Sabatier's advocacy coalition framework served as the theoretical framework for the study. Data were …

Successful Strategies For Retaining Profitability In An Education-Sector It Project, Cassandra Romae Middleton

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Many information technology (IT) project managers (PMs) and other business leaders lack effective strategies for enhancing communication among their project team members, thereby reducing profitability and organizational cohesion. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore communication strategies that IT PMs used to successfully complete IT mobile device projects. The conceptual framework for this study was McQuail's mass communication, Craig's communication, and Deming's profound knowledge theory. Purposive sampling method was used to identify 6 successful IT PMs and leaders who worked at 2 leading educations settings located in southeastern South Carolina. Data gathered from the semistructured interviews and …

Supply Chain Managers' Reverse Logistics Strategies To Control Cost Through Risk Mitigation, Lawrence A. Reeves

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Supply chain managers in the food and beverage industry face significant challenges regarding the use of effective reverse logistics strategies to reduce supply chain disruptions, control risk, and reduce costs. Through the lens of resource dependence theory, the purpose of this multiple case study was to explore reverse logistics strategies used by supply chain managers in the United States to control cost through risk mitigation. Participants in this study included 5 supply chain managers in the food and beverage distribution industry in the state of Georgia who implemented successful reverse logistics strategies to control cost through risk mitigation. Data were …

Use Of Mobile Telephones: Experiences Of First Responders In Rural African Communities, James Harding

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Emergency medical technicians (EMTs) usually participate in disaster response in rural African communities. Disasters in African communities are often characterized by huge fatalities, which are associated with a slow pace of response. The use of information and communication technology in disaster response is recognized as an effective conduit for enhancing response. Previous research indicates the efficacy of the use of mobile telephones in disaster response in advance countries. However, there remains a critical gap in the available literature on the experiences of EMTs with the use of mobile telephones in disaster response in rural African communities. The purpose of this …

Relationship Between Perceived Usefulness, Ease Of Use, And Acceptance Of Business Intelligence Systems, Christina Ndiwa Sandema-Sombe

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

In retail, the explosion of data sources and data has provided incentive to invest in information systems (IS), which enable leaders to understand the market and make timely decisions to improve performance. Given that users’ perceptions of IS affects their use of IS, understanding the factors influencing user acceptance is critical to acquiring an effective business intelligence system (BIS) for an organization. Grounded in the technology acceptance model theory, the purpose of this correlational study was to examine the relationship between perceived usefulness (PU), perceived ease of use (PEOU), and user acceptance of business intelligence systems (BIS) in retail organizations. …

Wellness Paradigms In Predicting Stress And Burnout Among Beginning Expatriate Teachers, Kimala Proctor

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Research indicates that the current teacher shortage is in part due to stress and burnout. A topic that has not been examined is beginning expatriate English medium teachers (EMTs) with 5 years or less of teaching experience in the United Arab Emirates and the relationship between using individualized, self-initiated wellness paradigms and stress, job burnout, and intent to leave the teaching profession. The transactional model of stress and coping, Maslach's multidimensional theory of burnout, and the health promotion model were used to evaluate the moderating effects of the EMTs' burnout and stress levels on their wellness and intent to leave. …

Probabilistic Algorithms, Lean Methodology Techniques, And Cell Optimization Results, Michael Mccurrey

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

There is a significant technology deficiency within the U.S. manufacturing industry compared to other countries. To adequately compete in the global market, lean manufacturing organizations in the United States need to look beyond their traditional methods of evaluating their processes to optimize their assembly cells for efficiency. Utilizing the task-technology fit theory this quantitative correlational study examined the relationships among software using probabilistic algorithms, lean methodology techniques, and manufacturer cell optimization results. Participants consisted of individuals performing the role of the systems analyst within a manufacturing organization using lean methodologies in the Southwestern United States. Data were collected from 118 …

Utilization Of Various Methods And A Landsat Ndvi/Google Earth Engine Product For Classifying Irrigated Land Cover, Andrew Nemecek

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Methods for classifying irrigated land cover are often complex and not quickly reproducible. Further, moderate resolution time-series datasets have been consistently utilized to produce irrigated land cover products over the past decade, and the body of irrigation classification literature contains no examples of subclassification of irrigated land cover by irrigation method. Creation of geospatial irrigated land cover products with higher resolution datasets could improve reliability, and subclassification of irrigation by method could provide better information for hydrologists and climatologists attempting to model the role of irrigation in the surface-ground water cycle and the water-energy balance. This study summarizes a simple, …

Less Is More: Beating The Market With Recurrent Reinforcement Learning, Louis Kurt Bernhard Steinmeister

Masters Theses

"Multiple recurrent reinforcement learners were implemented to make trading decisions based on real and freely available macro-economic data. The learning algorithm and different reinforcement functions (the Differential Sharpe Ratio, Differential Downside Deviation Ratio and Returns) were revised and the performances were compared while transaction costs were taken into account. (This is important for practical implementations even though many publications ignore this consideration.) It was assumed that the traders make long-short decisions in the S&P500 with complementary 3-month treasury bill investments. Leveraged positions in the S&P500 were disallowed. Notably, the Differential Sharpe Ratio and the Differential Downside Deviation Ratio are risk …

Human Dimensions Of A Participatory, Collaborative Modeling Process - Oysterfutures, Taylor Dawn Goelz

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

Participatory, collaborative modeling processes represent a unique decision-making technique within natural resources management that allows for the combination of stakeholder involvement with the analytical and predictive power of scientific models. The continued use of participatory modeling within decision-making processes depends in part upon the willingness of stakeholders to participate. Continued participation of stakeholders is key to the persistence and overall success of these processes, and yet limited information exists concerning the impacts of these processes on participants. The consideration of human dimensions advances our understanding of the design and function of participatory modeling processes, including their ability to create consensus …

Measuring Linguistic And Cultural Evolution Using Books And Tweets, Tyler Gray

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Written language provides a snapshot of linguistic, cultural, and current events information for a given time period. Aggregating these snapshots by studying many texts over time reveals trends in the evolution of language, culture, and society. The ever-increasing amount of electronic text, both from the digitization of books and other paper documents to the increasing frequency with which electronic text is used as a means of communication, has given us an unprecedented opportunity to study these trends. In this dissertation, we use hundreds of thousands of books spanning two centuries scanned by Google, and over 100 billion messages, or ‘tweets’, …

An Analysis Of Energy Transitions At Different Scales: Fossil Fuel Divestment In Higher Education And Individual Behavior, Elizabeth Palchak

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

A sociotechnical energy transition requires both a shift to new technologies and attention to social issues like political movements, policy and human behavior. This dissertation investigates social elements of the renewable energy transition occurring at different scales. The core research questions are: How are universities creating and responding to the shifting language of fossil fuel investments? How and for whom do behavioral interventions work? And finally, do in-home displays (IHDs) change behaviors and attitudes of millennial energy users?

The three studies covered here occurred within higher education and reflect the importance of colleges and universities as dynamic players in energy …

Applications In Sentiment Analysis And Machine Learning For Identifying Public Health Variables Across Social Media, Eric Michael Clark

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Twitter, a popular social media outlet, has evolved into a vast source of linguistic data, rich with opinion, sentiment, and discussion. We mined data from several public Twitter endpoints to identify content relevant to healthcare providers and public health regulatory professionals. We began by compiling content related to electronic nicotine delivery systems (or e-cigarettes) as these had become popular alternatives to tobacco products. There was an apparent need to remove high frequency tweeting entities, called bots, that would spam messages, advertisements, and fabricate testimonials. Algorithms were constructed using natural language processing and machine learning to sift human responses from automated …

Governing Water Quality Limits In Agricultural Watersheds, Courtney Ryder Hammond Wagner

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

The diffuse runoff of agricultural nutrients, also called agricultural nonpoint source pollution (NPS), is a widespread threat to freshwater resources. Despite decades of research into the processes of eutrophication and agricultural nutrient management, social, economic, and political barriers have slowed progress towards improving water quality. A critical challenge to managing agricultural NPS pollution is motivating landowners to act against their individual farm production incentives in response to distant ecological impacts. The complexity of governing the social-ecological system requires improved understanding of how policy shapes farmer behavior to improve the state of water quality. This dissertation contributes both theoretically and empirically …

The Quest Of Vision: Visual Culture, Sacred Space, Ritual, And The Documentation Of Lived Experience Through Rock Imagery, Aaron Robert Atencio

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This document will approach the multifaceted concepts that arise through the study of rock art and the cultivation of culture and belief through vision. Through this document the audience will encounter conceptual ideas regarding belief systems, ritual, experience, cognition, sacredness, and space/landscape — and how these are all essential dynamics that take place in the processes that cultivate the Shoshone visual culture. This document will employ an anthropological lens on the mentioned subject matters, while also approaching these concepts with an interdisciplinary curiosity of how they intermingle; creating a cohesive experience that focuses on these processes which empowered these people[s] …

Community-Centered Sustainable Conservation And Ecotourism Planning In The Bossou Forest Reserve, Guinea, West Africa, Destina Samani

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Ecotourism management has evolved over the years towards responsible conservation of the natural environment, sustaining the well-being of local people, enriching personal experiences and increasing environmental awareness. The development of a forest reserve is characteristic of the management–visitor–host community interface and the attendant competing interests in the face of new challenges, ideas and theories. In particular, host community participation in the conservation of the forest space tends to breakdown under weak ecotourism management, partly evident by the imbalanced exploitation of ecosystem services resulting in wildlife and society’s inability to cope effectively with the changes (Walker et al., 2016).

The Bossou …

Holocene Periods Of Aggradation And Incision, Hanson Creek, Washington, Levi Earl Windingstad

All Master's Theses

The causes and timing of cycles of aggradation and incision in the Hanson Creek drainage in central Washington provide insight into changes in channel morphology and paleoenvironment within the region over the last 8000 years. Stratigraphically and spatially coincident archaeological evidence reveals information related to human occupation during the latter half of the epoch. Using LiDAR imagery and field surveys, recent processes such as degree of modern channel incision, accumulation of valley floor sediment, channel morphology and gradient were evaluated. The spatial distribution of these channel characteristics was assessed in relation to proximal landforms such as colluvial deposits, basalt outcrops, …

Cliff-Top Dunes In The Lower Chippewa River Valley Of West-Central Wisconsin, Jason Millett

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

The purpose of this Master’s thesis is to investigate recently identified cliff-top sand dunes located within the Lower Chippewa River Valley (LCRV), Wisconsin, USA. Research within the LCRV notes the existence of a variety of aeolian deposits, but a comprehensive explanation of their complete spatial distribution, genesis, age, and paleoenvironmental significance does not exist. In particular, stabilized cliff-top dunes with a parabolic form remain poorly understood. This problem is exacerbated by a lack of clarity in the literature regarding the genesis of dunes in a cliff-top position. Therefore, this thesis begins by reviewing the literature concerning sand dunes in cliff-top …