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Boise State University

2014

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Articles 1 - 30 of 83

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Climate Change, Water Rights, And Water Supply: The Case Of Irrigated Agriculture In Idaho, Wenchao Xu, Scott E. Lowe, Richard M. Adams Dec 2014

Climate Change, Water Rights, And Water Supply: The Case Of Irrigated Agriculture In Idaho, Wenchao Xu, Scott E. Lowe, Richard M. Adams

Economics Faculty Publications and Presentations

We conduct a hedonic analysis to estimate the response of agricultural land use to water supply information under the Prior Appropriation Doctrine by using Idaho as a case study. Our analysis includes long-term climate (weather) trends and water supply conditions as well as seasonal water supply forecasts. A farm-level panel data set, which accounts for the priority effects of water rights and controls for diversified crop mixes and rotation practices, is used. Our results indicate that farmers respond to the long-term surface and ground water conditions as well as to the seasonal water supply variations. Climate change-induced variations in climate …

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Amending Equal Time: Explaining Institutional Change In American Communication Policy, Tim P. Vos, Seth Ashley Dec 2014

Amending Equal Time: Explaining Institutional Change In American Communication Policy, Tim P. Vos, Seth Ashley

Communication Faculty Publications and Presentations

This study explains the history of a 1959 amendment to the 1934 Communications Act through the lens of historical institutionalism. The amendment created broad exemptions for newscasts, documentaries, interviews, and news events, triggering the equal time provision for candidates for public office. While this study offers a variety of new empirical details, the chief goal is explanation based on an examination of historical mechanisms—path dependence, critical junctures, agglomeration, asymmetries of power, reinforcement of expectations, and temporal sequencing—that shaped the policy options leading up to the amendment.

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The Impact Of Telecommuting On Personal Vehicle Usage And Environmental Sustainability, Pengyu Zhu, Susan G. Mason Nov 2014

The Impact Of Telecommuting On Personal Vehicle Usage And Environmental Sustainability, Pengyu Zhu, Susan G. Mason

Urban Studies and Community Development Faculty Publications and Presentations

To understand whether telecommuting could be part of the policy solutions for greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction in the transportation sector, this study uses instrumental variable Tobit models and data from 2001 and 2009 National Household Travel Surveys to explore whether telecommuting reduces or increases the daily work and non-work vehicle miles traveled (VMT). Our findings suggest telecommuters have more VMT for both daily work and non-work trips than non-telecommuters. Adding the findings that telecommuting has no impact on other non-working household member’s daily total (non-work) trips, we can possibly argue that households with telecommuter(s) tend to have higher daily total …

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Using Slide Shows To Engage Patrons With Library Resources, Elizabeth Ramsey Oct 2014

Using Slide Shows To Engage Patrons With Library Resources, Elizabeth Ramsey

Library Faculty Publications and Presentations

Many libraries these days rely on the free promotional opportunities presented by social media. Albertsons Library at Boise State is no exception; however, we have found that we can extend the outreach capabilities of social media by using the same themes, images and/or messages on a slide show that runs on all the computers in the library, as well as a monitor in the library lobby. This article will examine concepts in user engagement and branding as the foundation to the successful use of this marketing tool, and also offer tips specific to setting up and designing your own slideshow.

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Deputized Brokers: A Technique For A Case Study Of Conservative Think Tanks In 1990s Welfare Reform, Sergio Romero Sep 2014

Deputized Brokers: A Technique For A Case Study Of Conservative Think Tanks In 1990s Welfare Reform, Sergio Romero

Sociology Faculty Publications and Presentations

This study proposes a novel analytical technique in a case study of think tank brokerage. As brokers, think tanks structurally link foundations and media, yet they do so as representatives of a policy network consisting of corporate funders and affiliated think tanks. Print media sought their policy analysis regarding the welfare system and prescriptions for reform. Network and content methods are the bases for the presentation of the technique. The coupling of results from each of the technique's components shows how resources tie actors, as well as how their conversion from one form to another is the basis for a …

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The Contemporary Presidency Reconsidering Presidential Policy Czars, Justin S. Vaughn Sep 2014

The Contemporary Presidency Reconsidering Presidential Policy Czars, Justin S. Vaughn

Political Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Since controversy began to swirl surrounding then-President-elect Barack Obama's alleged overreliance on policy czars in late 2008, political scientists and pundits alike have been quick to view this approach to White House staffing as an extension of the imperial presidency and, to some, a threat to the constitutional order. In this article, I take a step back and ask whether the phenomenon under attack is exactly what scholars assume it is. In doing so, I investigate the conceptualization problem czars pose as well as how and why presidents actually use czars. I conclude with a series of suggestion for future …

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Public Management In Political Institutions: Explaining Perceptions Of White House Chief Of Staff Influence, José D. Villalobos, Justin S. Vaughn, David B. Cohen Sep 2014

Public Management In Political Institutions: Explaining Perceptions Of White House Chief Of Staff Influence, José D. Villalobos, Justin S. Vaughn, David B. Cohen

Political Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

The notion that public managers influence organizational performance is common in public administration research. However, less is known about why some managers are better at influencing organizational performance than others. Furthermore, relatively few studies have systematically examined managerial influence and scholars have yet to investigate either quantitatively or systematically managerial influence in the White House. Utilizing original survey data collected from former White House officials who served in the Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and Clinton administrations, this study applies empirical public management theory to examine for the first time the key determinants that shape perceptions of chief of staff managerial …

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Catching Their Attention: Slide Shows As Outreach, Elizabeth Ramsey Aug 2014

Catching Their Attention: Slide Shows As Outreach, Elizabeth Ramsey

Elizabeth Ramsey

Albertsons Library at Boise State University has found slide shows to be an essential and easy to manage component in its outreach efforts and branding strategy. The slide shows run continually on a TV monitor in the library lobby as well as on all the computers in the library labs. This presentation focuses on the strategies used in the selection of topics, images and text, presenting examples of some of the most popular slides used at Albertsons Libraries categorized under recommended best practices.

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First-Year Students' Perspectives On Reasons For And Prevention Of Their Own Alcohol Overdose, Janet Reis Aug 2014

First-Year Students' Perspectives On Reasons For And Prevention Of Their Own Alcohol Overdose, Janet Reis

University Author Recognition Bibliography: 2014

Two hundred twenty-six first-year students enrolled at a large, public Midwest university and deemed to require an emergency transport for a potential alcohol overdose completed a brief questionnaire on the student's perceptions of why the event occurred, what might have happened to prevent the overdose situation, and personal assessment of experience with alcohol. The explanations for the event revolve around personal decision making (made decision to drink too much, absence of drinking control behaviors) as opposed to peer influence. Similarly, factors selected as preventing an alcohol overdose focused on knowing one's own tolerance, plus having a buddy system to slow …

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The Effects Of Ambient Media: What Unplugging Reveals About Being Plugged In, Jessica Roberts, Michael Koliska Aug 2014

The Effects Of Ambient Media: What Unplugging Reveals About Being Plugged In, Jessica Roberts, Michael Koliska

Jessica Roberts

An ever-increasing number of us live in a world rich in information and media that provide us with constant access to that information. Besides television, radio, newspapers, and computers, we now carry communication devices with us. Mobile devices with digital content — phones, iPods, PDAs — have become ubiquitous around the world, creating an information environment with as yet unknown consequences for the way we function and the way we think and feel. This study examines responses from students at 12 universities from 10 nations who tried to avoid all “media” for 24 hours and reflect on their experience, and …

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A Test Of The Intergenerational Conflict Model In Indonesia Shows No Evidence Of Earlier Menopause In Female-Dispersing Groups, Kristin Snopkowski, Cristina Moya, Rebecca Sear Aug 2014

A Test Of The Intergenerational Conflict Model In Indonesia Shows No Evidence Of Earlier Menopause In Female-Dispersing Groups, Kristin Snopkowski, Cristina Moya, Rebecca Sear

Kristin Snopkowski

Menopause remains an evolutionary puzzle, as humans are unique among primates in having a long post-fertile lifespan. One model proposes that intergenerational conflict in patrilocal populations favours female reproductive cessation. This model predicts that women should experience menopause earlier in groups with an evolutionary history of patrilocality compared with matrilocal groups. Using data from the Indonesia Family Life Survey, we test this model at multiple timescales: deep historical time, comparing age at menopause in ancestrally patrilocal Chinese Indonesians with ancestrally matrilocal Austronesian Indonesians; more recent historical time, comparing age at menopause in ethnic groups with differing postmarital residence within Indonesia …

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Self-Actualization On Steroids: An Exploration Of Social Skills, Dating, And Lifestyle Training For Heterosexual Men In A Western Cultural Context, James Daniel Wolfe Aug 2014

Self-Actualization On Steroids: An Exploration Of Social Skills, Dating, And Lifestyle Training For Heterosexual Men In A Western Cultural Context, James Daniel Wolfe

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

In 2005, Rolling Stones editor and New York Times writer Neil Strauss published a New York Times bestselling book titled The Game outlining his experience infiltrating the pick-up artist community in Los Angeles. The launching of this popular book was followed by the formation of companies that teach heterosexual men dating and relationship skills. From manipulation tactics to true social skills and personal growth, these companies are numerous and varied in what they teach men about dating and relationships. Masculinity norms of Western culture have been shown to discourage men from seeking help, especially for romantic relationships. These new forms …

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A Synthetic Biosocial Model Of Fertility Transition: Testing The Relative Contribution Of Embodied Capital Theory, Changing Cultural Norms, And Women's Labor Force Participation, Kristin Snopkowski, Hillard Kaplan Jul 2014

A Synthetic Biosocial Model Of Fertility Transition: Testing The Relative Contribution Of Embodied Capital Theory, Changing Cultural Norms, And Women's Labor Force Participation, Kristin Snopkowski, Hillard Kaplan

Kristin Snopkowski

This article presents a biosocial model of fertility decline, which integrates ecological-economic and informational-cultural hypotheses of fertility transition in a unified theoretical framework. The model is then applied to empirical data collected among 500 women from San Borja, Bolivia, a population undergoing fertility transition. Using a combination of event history analysis, multiple regression, and structural equation modeling, we examine the pathways by which education responds to birth cohort, parental education and network ties, and how age at first birth and total fertility, in turn, respond to birth cohort, social network ties, education, expectations about parental investment, work, and contraceptive use. …

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Having The Last Word, But Losing The Culture Wars: Mainstream Press Coverage Of A Canceled Evangelical Benediction., Rick Clifton Moore Jul 2014

Having The Last Word, But Losing The Culture Wars: Mainstream Press Coverage Of A Canceled Evangelical Benediction., Rick Clifton Moore

Communication Faculty Publications and Presentations

This study examines how mainstream news media reported the withdrawal of a popular pastor from the 2013 Obama inaugural ceremony. Louie Giglio was originally chosen for a role in the event but relinquished his position when focus was placed on a sermon he once delivered about homosexuality. Analysis of framing and sourcing of the stories raises serious questions about the role media played in reporting about this skirmish, which is clearly part of the larger culture wars.

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Barack Obama And The Rhetoric Of Electoral Logic, Julia R. Azari, Justin S. Vaughn Jun 2014

Barack Obama And The Rhetoric Of Electoral Logic, Julia R. Azari, Justin S. Vaughn

Political Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Objectives. This article examines Barack Obama’s efforts to interpret and characterize the contrasting outcomes of the 2008 and 2010 elections, using an original data set of presidential communications. Methods. We performed a content analysis of 241 presidential communications. Results. Obama’s post-2008 mandate claims alternated between claiming a mandate on a variety of policy issues and framing the election as a repudiation of Republican theories of governing. Post-2010, however, Obama framed the midterm results as evidence for electoral demand for bipartisan cooperation, rather than a repudiation of Democratic policies and ideas. Conclusions. Obama’s choices in framing the …

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The Conditional Effect Of Term Limits On Electoral Activities, Julie Vandusky-Allen Jun 2014

The Conditional Effect Of Term Limits On Electoral Activities, Julie Vandusky-Allen

Political Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

In this article, I examine how term limits affect the amount of time that legislators focus on constituency service and fundraising. I use data from the 2002 U.S. State Legislative Survey conducted by Carey, Niemi, Powell, and Moncrief to provide support for my hypotheses. The results from the data analysis suggest that in the presence of term limits, legislators with long-term career goals in politics spend less time on constituency service activities and more time on fundraising with their caucus. For legislators with short-term career goals in politics, there is very little evidence to suggest that term limits have an …

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Father Absence And Reproduction-Related Outcomes In Malaysia, A Transitional Fertility Population, Paula Sheppard, Kristin Snopkowski, Rebecca Sear Jun 2014

Father Absence And Reproduction-Related Outcomes In Malaysia, A Transitional Fertility Population, Paula Sheppard, Kristin Snopkowski, Rebecca Sear

Kristin Snopkowski

Father absence is consistently associated with children’s reproductive outcomes in industrialized countries. It has been suggested that father absence acts as a cue to particular environmental conditions that influence life history strategies. Much less is known, however, about the effects of father absence on such outcomes in lower-income countries. Using data from the 1988 Malaysian Family Life Survey (n=567), we tested the effect of father absence on daughters’ age at menarche, first marriage, and first birth; parity progression rates; and desired completed family size in Malaysia, a country undergoing an economic and fertility transition. Father absence during later …

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Child Health And Parental Paid Work, Peter Burton, Kelly Chen, Lynn Lethbridge, Shelley Phipps May 2014

Child Health And Parental Paid Work, Peter Burton, Kelly Chen, Lynn Lethbridge, Shelley Phipps

Kelly Chen

We ask how the paid work of Canadian married mothers and fathers is affected when a child has a physical/mental condition or health problem that leads to restrictions in daily activities. Using the Statistics Canada National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth, we find that married mothers of children with disabilities are less likely to engage in paid work and/or work fewer paid hours per week. No statistically significant changes in paid work participation or hours are apparent for fathers of the same children. We find, moreover, evidence that the degree of specialization within families increases when there is a …

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Ux, It’S Not A New State In The Union: User Experience Explained!, Amy Vecchione, Deana Brown May 2014

Ux, It’S Not A New State In The Union: User Experience Explained!, Amy Vecchione, Deana Brown

Library Faculty Publications and Presentations

Using user experience (UX) methodologies, libraries can improve their web site by identifying the tasks that their users need to accomplish, and then eliminate those barriers. This process sounds easy enough, but if your library makes web site decisions based on self-referential or anecdotal data, then it’s not being geared towards user’s tasks and goals. By following user experience principles, libraries can clearly identify problematic touchpoints, or expand upon touchpoints that users value the most. Here’s a quick overview.

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Dialectic Of Enlightenment: Fragments From The Past For Contemporary Communication Studies, Saša Kampič May 2014

Dialectic Of Enlightenment: Fragments From The Past For Contemporary Communication Studies, Saša Kampič

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

The book Dialectic of Enlightenment is relevant to the study of communication in society. Originally written in the 1940s, its twenty-first century reissue is re-edited and newly translated with the subtitle “Philosophical Fragments.” The book is explored in the thesis as a contribution to a reinterpretation of the study of communication in society. As a defining work of the Frankfurt School of Critical Theory, it shows that reason guides practice and the culture of the social world through distorted, illusionary operations, operations that are reductive, instrumental practices supported by conceptions of them. Reason-in-practice is an instrumental logic inherited from the …

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Explaining Variance In Reproductive Success And Food Sharing In Ust’-Avam, Joellie Rasmussen May 2014

Explaining Variance In Reproductive Success And Food Sharing In Ust’-Avam, Joellie Rasmussen

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

In light of somatic and reproductive tradeoffs modeled in evolutionary theory, this thesis conducts two analyses of men’s behavior in the indigenous hunter-gatherer community of Ust’-Avam, northern Russia. First, a food-distribution network of men’s hunting documented in 2001 and 2003 is analyzed considering evolutionary models of food sharing: kin selection, reciprocal altruism, generosity signaling, and costly signaling. The frequency of inter-household food transfers from 36 donor households to 102 recipient households are examined using matrix regression with independent variables representing embodied, material, and relational wealth. This analysis does not support the costly signaling model, but provides robust evidence for kinship, …

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Using X-Ray Fluorescence Spectrometry To Assess Variance In Obsidian Source Distribution In Southern Idaho, Marielle Loryn Pedro Black May 2014

Using X-Ray Fluorescence Spectrometry To Assess Variance In Obsidian Source Distribution In Southern Idaho, Marielle Loryn Pedro Black

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

This study explores the use of portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) and X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectrometry to assist in associating artifacts with geological sources of obsidian from Southern Idaho. XRF spectrometry measures trace element abundance within obsidian artifacts, which is then compared, using a variety of statistical techniques, with known obsidian source geochemical profiles. Results from previous obsidian provenance studies have been used in archaeology as a proxy in measuring prehistoric hunter-gatherer mobility. Artifacts from 11 site assemblages were measured using pXRF to augment data for previously analyzed sites and to collect artifact geochemical data from previously unanalyzed sites. Using pXRF …

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Supporting Global Environmental Change Research: A Review Of Trends And Knowledge Gaps In Urban Remote Sensing, Michail Fragkias May 2014

Supporting Global Environmental Change Research: A Review Of Trends And Knowledge Gaps In Urban Remote Sensing, Michail Fragkias

Economics Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper reviews how remotely sensed data have been used to understand the impact of urbanization on global environmental change. We describe how these studies can support the policy and science communities’ increasing need for detailed and up-to-date information on the multiple dimensions of cities, including their social, biological, physical, and infrastructural characteristics. Because the interactions between urban and surrounding areas are complex, a synoptic and spatial view offered from remote sensing is integral to measuring, modeling, and understanding these relationships. Here we focus on three themes in urban remote sensing science: mapping, indices, and modeling. For mapping we describe …

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I Bake, He Grills: Relationships In The Kitchen, Megan Boatman May 2014

I Bake, He Grills: Relationships In The Kitchen, Megan Boatman

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Food and communication are equally vital to the human experience. They are essential to nourishment and growth. Both can be complex and rich, or rudimentary and straightforward. Food and food preparation as a lens for study has recently expanded within the communication field. This study attempts to add to the existing body of research and specifically focuses on a complex interpersonal setting: meal preparation. The author posits that a greater understanding of roles and expectations in developing romantic relationships can be gained by examining the ways in which partners communicate while working together to prepare a meal. The author employs …

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Organizing Livelihoods: An Examination Of Political Discourses Organizing A Public Park, Jared Kopczynski May 2014

Organizing Livelihoods: An Examination Of Political Discourses Organizing A Public Park, Jared Kopczynski

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Organizational communication scholars have a history of challenging previous understandings of organization and complicating the ways organizations are understood and practiced. As organizations have been studied from communicative perspectives, some scholars have suggested moving beyond the organization to apply the rich insights gained to new problems and phenomena. Guided by the call to take organizational communication insights beyond the “organization,” this thesis examines constitutive communicative interactions and lived experiences within a public park. Public parks are frequently overlooked as mundane places in contemporary Western society, but this study demonstrates how that they are important places for meaning making and organizing. …

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Narrating Gender: A Feminist Approach To The Narratives Of The Transgender Experience, Jamie K. Lange May 2014

Narrating Gender: A Feminist Approach To The Narratives Of The Transgender Experience, Jamie K. Lange

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Gender and identity are complex and often ubiquitous in nature. This is a study about gender and identity and the ways in which they manifest through the narratives of five transgender individuals, who all transitioned after the age of 45, who now live as women. This study about the transgender experience adds a significant and important perspective on gender, identity, identification, and the relationship between gender and identity. The most important conclusions are the lengths to which these people go to support gender social constructs, reinforcing the immense strength of the social construction of gender. The idea that social constructs …

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Girls Will Be Girls: Discourse, Poststructuralist Feminism, And Media Presentations Of Women, Amanda Soza May 2014

Girls Will Be Girls: Discourse, Poststructuralist Feminism, And Media Presentations Of Women, Amanda Soza

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

This study examines presentations of women in the media through Foucauldian critical discourse analysis in order to explore dominant ideas of gender and femininity embedded within D/discourses that constrain the lived experiences of women. Specifically, this study explores the television show Girls as a text presenting particular knowledge of femininity. By engaging in an interpretive analysis of the ways femininity is presented in both public and private presentations of gender in Girls, I reveal how women make sense of past and negotiate future public performances of femininity in private. Further, I deconstruct a specific scene of Girls to reveal …

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A Library And The Disciplines: A Collaborative Project Assessing The Impact Of Ebooks And Mobile Devices On Student Learning, Barbara C. Glackin, Roy Rodenhiser, Brooke Herzog May 2014

A Library And The Disciplines: A Collaborative Project Assessing The Impact Of Ebooks And Mobile Devices On Student Learning, Barbara C. Glackin, Roy Rodenhiser, Brooke Herzog

Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

With the proliferation of technology usage, it is essential to understand the effect of implementation of technology in the academic setting. Specifically, this article examines the impact of eBooks and mobile devices on student learning. A pilot study was conducted with three areas of interest. The first question of interest found that owning or having access to two or more mobile devices significantly increased respondents' frequency of accessing eBooks. The second question examined the pros and cons of using mobile devices. Accessibility and cost savings were found as pros; while functionality and pedagogy were reported as drawbacks to mobile device …

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A Historical Comparison Of The Social Origins Of Broadcasting Policy, 1896–1920, Seth Ashley Apr 2014

A Historical Comparison Of The Social Origins Of Broadcasting Policy, 1896–1920, Seth Ashley

Communication Faculty Publications and Presentations

Using the United States and Great Britain as a comparative case study, this article employs a historical framework to consider the broad array of social, cultural, political, and economic contexts that led to divergent outcomes in the early development of broadcasting policy. This comparative historical analysis reveals the causal chains formed before the 1920s despite a period of post-war contingency. As a policy option, government control was removed in the United States but stayed in place in Britain after the war. This comparative approach can help to explain policy outcomes and inform modern policy debates.

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Parental Involvement: Perceptions Of Stay-At-Home Fathers, Lauren Moore Apr 2014

Parental Involvement: Perceptions Of Stay-At-Home Fathers, Lauren Moore

College of Social Sciences and Public Affairs Presentations

The purpose of this study was to explore how men and women differ in essentialist perceptions of gender roles and gender ideologies as they relate to attitudes about father involvement and stay-at-home fathers. There were a total of 442 undergraduate students who completed an online survey. Results indicated that there was a significant gender difference regarding perceptions of stay-at-home fathers’ masculinity, t (433) = 5.68, p = .000, with men perceiving stay-at-home fathers as more feminine (M = 3.12) than women (M=2.51). Also a significant difference was found between men and women concerning gender ideologies, t (435) = 5.53, p …

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